A large segment of society, composed of hourly workers whose income is somewhat below average

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proaches substantially different from those developed in the past by commercial insurance companies—are obvious and challenging. Labormanagement programs, utilizing community resources, may possibly be the demonstration which will show the validity of inclusion of this type of benefit in the Federal social security system.

In summary, retirement security programs presently established under collective bargaining should be judged not only by the point at which they have arrived but by the directions in which they are moving or may be expected to move. Retirement security for particular groups in our society cannot be assured on a sound and longrange basis except through advancement of the retirement security of all groups.

Supplementary collective-bargaining programs

may be expected to continue to fill gaps and meet special needs in particular industries. One of the most important aspects of these programs will be their effect on retirement policy, particularly with respect to such fundamental considerations as the right of self-determination, the right to work, the right to retire with a meaningful minimum security, and recognition of individual potentialities and needs.

A great deal of study, planning and coordinated action, in which labor, industry, and the community will have essential parts, will be necessary if desirable goals are to be attained.

1 This article is a condensation of a speech entitled “Retirement-A Labor Viewpoint” by Willard E. Solenberger, Program Consultant, Social Security Department of the United Automobile Workers (CIO) and was delivered at the meeting in St. Louis on September 12, 1951.

Earnings in Ferrous Foundries, June 1951

A tenth of the increases amounted to less than 5 percent, and a slightly larger proportion to more than 15 percent. About a fourth of the increases ranged from 10 to 15 percent.

AVERAGE HOURLY EARNINGS of coremakers and molders in 25 leading ferrous foundry areas ranged from $1.32 to $2.34 in June 1951, according to a study made by the United States Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. In three-fifths of the areas studied, earnings in these important occupations averaged from $1.75 to $2 an hour; in about one-fourth of the areas, hourly earnings averaged $2 or more.

Wood patternmakers usually had the highest hourly earnings among the occupations studied and earned, on the average, at least $2 in twothirds of the areas.

Earnings in ferrous foundries generally averaged highest in the Great Lakes region. That area accounted for nearly half of the employment included in the study. Among the important areas in the Great Lakes region producing ferrous castings are Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee.

Between the summer of 1950, the date of the Bureau's previous study, and June 1951, average earnings typically increased from 5 to 10 percent.

Related Wage Practices

Second-shift operations were reported in all areas. Less than 1 percent of the ferrous foundry workers in Baltimore to 35 percent in Indianapolis were employed on the second shift. Nineteen of the 25 areas had third-shift work; employment on this shift varied from less than 1 percent of the work force in Los Angeles to 15 percent in St. Louis.

Shift differential payments were a common practice in virtually all areas. Although a differential of 10 percent of day-work rates was the prevailing practice for both second- and thirdshift workers in four areas, the typical premium was 5 cents an hour for second-shift work, and from 5 to 10 cents for third-shift work.

A workweek of 40 hours prevailed in all areas except Hartford and San Francisco. In these two areas, 45- and 48-hour schedules, respectively, were most common, although a large segment of the work force in each of these areas had a normal working schedule of 40 hours. Ferrous foundries

Baltimore. Birmingham Boston. Buffalo. Chicago. Cincinnati. Cleveland Dayton.. Denver Detroit. Hartford. Houston Indianapolis Los Angeles Milwaukee. Minneapolis-St. Paul. Newark-Jersey City. New York Philadelphia. Pittsburgh. Portland, Oreg. St. Louis San Francisco. Seattle Toledo..

(2) $1.60 1.83 2. 19 1. 96 2. 14 2.00 2. 34 1.67 2. 12

2.07 (3)

2.08 2. 23 2. 27 1. 79 2. 10 1. 92 1.78 1.85 1.88 1. 95 1. 96 1. 90 2. 05

$1.16 1.10 1.33 1.53 1. 49 1.39 1.58 1. 76 1.29 1.77 1. 26 1. 28 1.47 1. 40 1.59 1.64 1.49 1.38 1.37 1.44 1.53 1.37 1. 59 1.48 1. 69

Earnings in the Photographic and Blueprinting Industry

2. 45 1.91 1.84 1. 72 1. 71 2. 05

2.03 (2)

2. 12

2. 48 (2) (3)

1 Excludes premium pay for overtime and night work. : Insufficient data to permit presentation of an average.

employing about a third of the total employment in Boston and Cincinnati and two-fifths in Denver and Houston had a 48-hour schedule.

Paid holidays were granted by establishments having two-thirds or more of the ferrous foundry workers in all areas except Birmingham and Pittsburgh. Slightly less than half of the foundry workers in Birmingham and about a fifth of those in Pittsburgh received holiday pay. Six paid holidays a year was the most common practice in most areas. Nearly 70 percent of the ferrous foundry workers in New York, and over 90 percent

STRAIGHT-TIME HOURLY EARNINGS for over half of all plant workers engaged in manufacturing photographic equipment and supplies in the United States amounted to $1.55 or more, with less than 2 percent averaging under $1, in April-May 1951; for workers producing blueprinting equipment and supplies, earnings were slightly lower and averaged $1.50 an hour 2 for the country as a whole. Employment in the latter branch of the industry, however, accounted for less than 5 percent of the estimated industry employment.

Geographically, the photographic equipment and supply industry is primarily concentrated in the Middle Atlantic region where over four-fifths of the plant workers are employed. In this region, establishments having over 500 workers, while representing less than 5 percent of all establishments in the industry, accounted for over 70 percent of the estimated industry employment. Fifty

Percentage distribution of plant workers (excluding apprentices) in the photographic and blueprinting equipment and supplies

industry, by straight-time average hourly earnings 1 and product, United States and selected regions, April-May 1951

about two-fifths of the establishments having over 80 percent of the employment, the lowest hourly rates paid were from $1 to $1.10.

Workers paid on an incentive basis were primarily found in only a few large plants in the industry. Apprentices were relatively few in number and, as in the case of incentive workers, were employed by only a few plants.

-JAMES P. CORKERY Division of Wages and Industrial Relations

eight percent of the workers in this area earned $1.55 or more an hour and only 1 percent earned less than $1. Earnings in the Great Lakes region, the only other region containing more than 3 percent of the total employment, averaged $1.43 an hour; about a third of the workers received at least $1.55 an hour. (A breakdown by State of the various regions appears in the footnotes of the accompanying table.)

Higher earnings were generally recorded for the largest-size establishments. Considering the country as a whole, nearly 60 percent of the workers in plants employing 501 or more workers, earned at least $1.55 an hour, whereas such earnings were applicable to only 35 percent of the workers in both the medium-size plants (101 to 500 employees) and the smallest-size plants (fewer than 100 employees).

The lowest rates paid by individual establishments to plant workers (exclusive of apprentices) in the photographic and blueprinting equipment and supplies industry varied widely and ranged from 75 cents to more than $1.30 an hour. In

1 Based on a mail-questionnaire study, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics made at the request of the Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Division in connection with determining the prevailing minimum rate for the indes try under the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act of 1936. It covered estabishments primarily engaged in manufacturing: (1) photographic apparatus, equipment and supplies; (2) blueprint machines and other apparatus and equipment used in blueprinting, whiteprinting, and related processes; senstized papers and cloths, and specially prepared solutions for their develop ment. Plants primarily engaged in producing photographs, or photographie reproductions, photographic exposure meters, photographic light bulbs or the manufacture of blueprints were excluded from the scope of the study,

2 Medians (rates above and below which half of the workers are found) rather than weighted arithmetic averages are used in this report #berever possible. Earnings distributions were secured only up to $1.55 which pre cludes the computation of median rates for the photographic equipment and supplies industry for the Nation as a whole and for workers in the Middle Atlantic and Pacific regions.

Earnings in the Manufacture of Tobacco Products, May 1951

PLANT WORKERS engaged in manufacturing tobacco products had average straight-time hourly earnings of $1.28 in May 1951. Cigarette workers who accounted for 85 percent of the total employment in the industry had the highest hourly average ($1.29); ? over a third of these workers earned at least $1.40 an hour and fewer than 9 percent earned less than $1 an hour.

In each of the other three branches of the industry-chewing tobacco, smoking tobacco, and

, snuff-earnings were substantially below those in cigarette manufacture and averaged $1.16, $1.10, and $1.18 an hour, respectively.

Although cigarettes are manufactured in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, the bulk of the industry is concentrated in large plants in Kentucky, North Carolina, and Virginia. Smoking tobacco is produced principally in Missouri. Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio, and Tennessee are the leading States in the manufacture of chewing tobacco. Tennessee ranks first in the production of snuff and is followed in order by Illinois and New Jersey.

On a regional basis, earnings of cigarette workers in the South averaged 6 cents an hour more than those in the North. Nearly two-thirds of all plant workers in the South earned at least $1.25 an hour, whereas only two-fifths of the workers in the North had such earnings. It should be noted, however, that 95 percent of the employment in the production of cigarettes is concentrated in the South.

In the chewing tobacco branch of the industry, the highest average hourly earnings ($1.23) were recorded for the Great Lakes region and the lowest ($0.96) for the Southeast region. A breakdown by State of the various regions appears in the footnotes of the accompanying table.

Wage rates paid to unskilled workers in the tobacco industry after they have acquired experience at their jobs (the job rate) were somewhat higher than when they first began their employment (the entrance rate). Many establishments had provisions for automatic increases after specified probationary periods; the accompanying table presents average hourly earnings under job rates, excluding the rates earned by probationary workers.

The lowest entrance rates paid by individual establishments to unskilled men workers in the

Percentage distribution of plant workers (excluding probationary workers) in the tobacco industry by straight-time average

hourly earnings ' and by product, United States and selected regions,? May 1951

1 Excludes premium pay for overtime and night work.

3 Regions used in this study include: N England-Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont; Middle Atlantic-New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania; Border States-Delaware, District of Columbia, Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia; Southeast- Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee; Great Lakes-Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin; Middle West-Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska,

North Dakota, and South Dakota; Southwest-Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, an Texas; Countain-Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming; and Pacific-California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.

3 Includes New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. - Includes Kentucky, North Carolina, and Virginia. s Includes data for other regions in addition to those shown separately. 6 Less than 0.05 of 1 percent.

tobacco industry ranged from 75 cents to more than $1.25 an hour. In about two-thirds of these establishments employing over 85 percent of the total work force, these rates varied from 80 cents to $1 an hour. In over half of the establishments with almost 90 percent of the employment studied, the lowest job rates for men ranged from 95 cents to $1.25 an hour.

The minimum entrance rates paid to unskilled women workers varied from 75 cents to more than $1.15 an hour. In about half of the plants having over 80 percent of the employment, these rates fell within an 80- to 95-cent bracket. Most of the women workers were employed in plants which had established minimum job rates ranging from 90 cents to $1.10 an hour.

Minimum rates of men were generally higher than those of women. The types of work performed by unskilled workers probably govern the established minimum rates. Men perform the

heavy and arduous tasks and unskilled women workers are usually engaged in light and repetitive assignments.

The lowest rates actually paid by individual establishments to plant workers in May 1951 varied from 75 cents to $1.25 an hour. In about half of the establishments employing over 60 percent of the plant workers in the tobacco industry, the lowest hourly rates actually paid ranged from 90 cents to $1.10.

- JAMES P. CORKERY Division of Wages and Industrial Relations

1 Based on a mail-questionnaire study, the Bureau of Labor Statistics made at the request of the Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Division in connection with determining the prevailing minimum rate for the industry under the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act of 1936. It covered establish. ments with eight or more workers primarily engaged in manufacturing cigar. ettes, smoking tobacco, chewing tobacco, or snuff. Establishments covered in the survey wero requested to exclude overtime and shift premiums from earnings data, but to include earnings under incentivo systems of wage payment.

Medlans (rates above and below which hall of the workers are found) rather than weighted arithmetic averages are used in this report.