WAGES AND HOURS OF LABOR Wages and Hours of Labor in the Cane-Sugar Refining Industry, 1930 N 1930 a study of wages and hours of labor of wage earners, by United States was made by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The study included workers in all processes, beginning with the receipt of the raw-cane sugar at the refineries, including all operations or occupations in the process of refining, and ending with the work of packing and shipping the refined sugar from the plants in the form of granulated, cube, powdered, and brown sugar. The United States Census of Manufactures reported an average of 13,920 wage earners in cane-sugar refineries in continental United States in 1929. The bureau's study covered 11,027 male and 863 female employees of 21 refineries and therefore represents practically the entire industry. The study showed that the average full-time hours per week for males in this industry ranged, in the various occupations, from 51.7 for boilermakers to 64.3 for blow-up tankmen. The occupation of packer was the only one in which women were employed, with the exception of a small number (too small to be tabulated separately) included in the group of "other employees"; the hours of the woman packers averaged 50.8 per week. For all employees in the industry the average was 58.7 per week. In plants with a 2-shift cycle in which employees alternated, working on the day shift one week and the night shift the next week, the average for each employee for the two shifts was used in computing average full-time hours per week for them. The hours of employees who worked 13 consecutive days, followed by 2 days off duty, were adjusted to a full-time week basis. By occupations, average earnings per hour for males ranged from 41.3 cents for laborers to 69.4 cents for sugar boilers. The average for packers, female, was 28.9 cents; for females in the group of "other employees," 29 cents. For both sexes in all occupations combined the average was 46.1 cents per hour. Average full-time earnings per week for males ranged from $24.74 for laborers to $37.13 for sugar boilers; the average for packers, female, was $14.68, for females in the group of "other employees," $16.97; and for both sexes in all occupations combined, $27.06. Details are shown in Table 1. TABLE 1.-AVERAGE FULL-TIME HOURS AND EARNINGS IN THE SUGAR-REFINING INDUSTRY, 1930, BY OCCUPATION AND SEX Average Hours and Earnings, 1930, by Sex and Districts Average full-time hours per week, earnings per hour, and full-time earnings per week for wage earners of each sex and for both sexes in all occupations combined, or the industry, are presented in Table 2 by districts. (The averages are shown by districts instead of by States to avoid presenting wage figures for one refinery.) District 1 includes the cane-sugar refineries in Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey; district 2, those in Pennsylvania and Maryland; district 3, those in Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas; and district 4, those in California. Average full-time hours per week for males ranged in the various districts from 47.8 to 61.8, the average for all districts combined being 59.3; for females the average ranged from 48 to 54, the average for all districts combined being 51.5. For both sexes combined the range was from 47.8 to 61. By districts average earnings per hour of males ranged from 30.3 to 63.3 cents and for all districts combined averaged 47.2 cents; those of females ranged from 19.1 to 42.2 cents and averaged 28.9 cents; and those of both sexes combined ranged from 29.5 to 62.2 cents. Average full-time earnings per week of males ranged from $18.30 to $32.38; and for all districts averaged $27.99; those of females ranged from $10.31 to $20.26, and for all districts combined averaged $14.88; and those of males and females combined ranged from $17.67 to $31.48 per week. TABLE 2.-AVERAGE HOURS AND EARNINGS IN THE SUGAR-REFINING INDUSTRY, 1930, BY SEX AND DISTRICT Table 3 presents, by districts, average full-time hours per week, earnings per hour, and full-time earnings per week for the wage earners in six of the occupations (all males) in Table 1. The averages in these occupations are representative of the averages in all occupations in the industry. The wage earners in them represent 47.8 per cent of the total number in all occupations. TABLE 3.-AVERAGE HOURS AND EARNINGS FOR SIX SPECIFIED OCCUPATIONS, IN THE SUGAR-REFINING INDUSTRY, 1930, BY SEX AND DISTRICT TABLE 3.-AVERAGE HOURS AND EARNINGS FOR SIX SPECIFIED OCCUPATIONS, IN THE SUGAR-REFINING INDUSTRY, 1930, BY SEX AND DISTRICT-Continued Average and Classified Earnings per Hour TABLE 4 presents average earnings per hour and a percentage distribution by average earnings per hour of the wage earners in each occupation in the industry, and also in all occupations combined. The 841 centrifugal tenders (the second occupation in the table) employed by the 21 refineries included in the study earned an average of 46.3 cents per hour. The earnings per hour of 6 per cent of them were within the classified group of 25 and under 271⁄2 cents per hour. The earnings of the other wage earners in this occupation ranged by classified groups from 27%1⁄2 and under 30 cents to 65 and under 70 cents per hour. Approximately 11 per cent of all employees in all occupations combined earned an average of less than 25 cents per hour, while 4 per cent earned an average of 75 cents or more. The earnings of 85 per cent of the whole group fell within these extremes. The very wide range in earnings was due largely to variance in wage rates from one refinery to another, rather than to difference in earnings of wage earners in an occupation in the same plant, there usually being little difference in average earnings per hour of employees in an occupation within the same refinery. |