the 8-hour day. About 10,000 fur workers reduced their hours from 53 to 49 a week by strikes: in New York City about 5,000 of them secured an agreement establishing the basic 8-hour day. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in 1917 that the number of workers having the 8-hour day had increased 27% since 1914- Of the union scales in the metal trades in 1914, 28% provided for the 8-hour day, and 49% for the 54-hour week; in 1917, 41 % pro- vided for an 8-hour day, 32 % for a 54-hour week.
In 1918, 50,000 lumbermen of the western states, 100,000 employ- ees of the meat-packing industry, and about 336,000 shipyard employees and 270,000 employees of the merchant marine worked the basic 8-hour day with extra overtime pay, due largely to rulings of such Governmental boards as the Shipbuilding Labour Adjust- ment Board and the National War Labor Board, the general policy of which was to grant the basic 8-hour day, with time-and-a-half for overtime and double pay for Sundays and holidays. Shipbuilding employees of the Delaware river and Baltimore district were granted a basic 44-hour week with overtime pay up to a maximum of 60 hours. A decision of the War Labor Board introduced the actual 8-hour day, except in emergencies, in the foundries of Wheeling, W.Va. The reason given was that longer hours shorten the workers' lives, injure their health, and in the long run decrease production. In this case overtime was to be permitted only by the vote of a joint committee of employers and employees. For the railway shops, on the other hand, an agreement was made between the union and the Railroad Administration for all shops working single shifts of less than 70 hours a week to increase their hours on a 7-day basis, to meet the emergency of the war. On the day following the signing of the Armistice, the heads of the three chief production departments of the Government, War, Navy, and the Shipping Board, decided to issue an order for immediate discontinuance of overtime and Sunday work on all Government construction and in all establishments owned or controlled by the Government which were producing war supplies. An order of the Railroad Administra- tion a week later provided that, wherever practicable, the hours which had been increased to meet emergencies in railway shops should be reduced to nine. Four awards of the War Labor Board in Oct. refused to permit overtime pay for Sunday work unless the employee had worked 48 hours in the preceding week.
The movement for the 8-hour day continued after the Armistice, until there was in 1921 scarcely a trade or industry in which many of the employees were not working the basic 8-hour day. Many of these work overtime. The Bureau of Labor Statistics in 1919 re- ceived reports of 1,640 agreements between trade unions and employ- ers providing for the 48-hour week, and 315 providing for the 44- hour week. On Oct. I 1918 the U.S. Steel Corporation granted the basic 8-hour day with time-and-a-half pay for overtime to the employees in its mines and industrial establishments, more than 250,000 men. A year later, the treasurer testified before the U.S. Senate Committee that of 60,000 employees of th ; .s corporation and its subsidiary companies, 26-8 % actually worked 72 hours or more a week, 38-7 % worked 60 hours or more, and only 34-2 % worked less than 60 hours a week. Most of these men work 7 days each week, 82 men work a continuous 24 hours once in each month, and 344 men work a continuous 18 hours every alternate week; these are all in blast furnace departments. However, some 20 American steel plants were in 1921 running on a 3-shift schedule; the employees affected have been willing to make concessions in the matter of wages, in order to obtain the shorter hours.
The year 1919 was marked by the introduction of the 44-hour week in the clothing industry, the result of strikes and peaceful agreements. The Postal Telegraph Co. reduced the hours of its employees to 8 a day. It indeed seemed that the 8-hour day was the " established policy of the country," as the President's personal mediation commission had stated. Twenty-seven unions, with a membership of 15,350, chiefly in the railway shops and building trades of Boston and Seattle, had a basic 4O-hour week. In 1919 the International Typographical Union obtained the 44-hour week in book and job offices by negotiation with the employers; 12 years be- fore, this Union together with the bookbinders and the pressmen, had spent $11,000,000 to win the 48-hour week.
Investigations made in 1920 showed that one-half the employees of hotels and about one-third of the men and one-fourth of the women working in restaurants were employed 7 days a week. Except for cooks the hours were very irregular, often split into shifts, and falling at different times day after day. The average hours on duty varied from 8 to 10 every 24. The basic work week in the Central Atlantic coast district for 40 % of the unskilled labourers was over 54 hours, for 30 % more than 44 but not more than 48 hours, for 1 8 % it was 44 hours or less. Of skilled trades in the same district, 75% worked 44 hours or less a week; of clerical workers 12 % worked 39 hours or less, 53 % worked 39! to 42 hours inclusive, 33 % worked 425 to 45 hours inclusive. There are no data for hours of agricultural labour for the United States as a whole. The length of the workday varies with the kind of farming and with the season. Studies made on Iowa farms (1909 to 1918) show that the average hours per weekday of the proprietor increased from 10-4 to 11-95, while those of the hired labourer decreased from 12-4 to 11-46. In Wisconsin in 1916 the average farm workday was IO-8 hours in winter and 12-5 in summer.
Hours of Work in U.S. in 1919.
(From investigations of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.)
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Industry
Aver. Hours Actually Worked per Day
Aver. Hours
Actually Worked per Week
Aver. Full- Time Work Week
Men
Wom- en
Men
Wom- en
Men
Wom- en
Lumber
7-2
43-2
59-i
Mill work
8-1
8-1
48-6
48-6
52-8
54-7
Furniture .
8-5
8-1
51-0
48-6
55-2
54-9
Bricks ....
7-8
46-8
55-i
Chemicals .
8-4
7-4
50-4
44.4
56-8
52 ; 6
Glass ....
7-8
7-2
46-8
43-2
53-7
51-9
Leather
8-1
6-9
48-6
41-4
53-o
52-1
Paper ....
8-7
8-0
52-2
48-0
Si-4
51-7
Pulp . .
8-5
51-0
51-4
Automobiles
8-2
7-8
49-2
46-8
50-6
49-3
Cars ....
8-1
48-6
53-8
Electrical Apparatus.
8-0
7'7
48-0
46-2
50-6
50-2
Foundries .
8-2
7-i
49-2
42-6
53-8
50-4
Machinery .
8-2
7-1
49-2
42-6
51-7
52-9
Machine Tool .
8-6
77
51-6
46-2
53-9
51-6
Typewriter
8-6
7-8
51-6
46-8
52-6
51-6
Pottery
7-i
6-8
42-6
40-8
53-6
50-9
Rubber
8-2
7-8
49-2
46-8
5i-i
5i-9
Boot and Shoe .
7-4
7-2
44-4
43-2
48-4
48-8
6-8
5'9
40-8
34'2
47-8
48-0
Hosiery and Under-
to
to
to
to
to
to
wear 1
9-8
9-1
58-7
63-1
59-8
60-0
7-3
7-3
40-8
42-3
50-0
50-0
Silk 1 .
to
to
to
to
to
to
9'5
9-1
57-o
54-5
55-
55-
5-9
6-6
35-6
39-4
45-2
45-5
Men's Clothing l .
to
to
to
to
to
to
9-5
8-6
56-9
5i-6
53-8
50-1
6-1
5'7
34-9
33-9
No
No
Cigars 1 . . .
to
to
to
to
data
data
8-5
9-0
51-6
55-1
Paper Boxes
8-3
7-5
49-9
45-o
51-2
50-0
Women's Clothing .
8-1
7-4
48-5
44-0
48-5
48-1
Confectionery .
8-4
7'3
50-4
43-8
54-4
50-1
Overalls
7-i
6-7
42-6
40-2
46-1
46-0
The annual convention of the American Federation of Labor in 1920 accepted the report of the committee on the shorter workday in favour of the 44-hour week, 8 hours for 5 days of the week, 4 hours on Saturday, except in certain industries where the hours should be still shorter, " that there may be no unemployment in that field."
Six states and the Federal Government have passed laws requiring that certain wage-earners be given one day's rest in seven. The Federal law applies only to post-office employees. Most of the laws limiting hours for women prevent Sunday work by fixing a weekly as well as a daily limit, but some specify only the daily limit, and Arizona makes the weekly limit 7 times the daily limit. Vir- ginia requires that all state employees who work 7 days must be relieved for at least two Sundays in each calendar month. The 7-day week increases absenteeism, especially on Monday. Much of the present-day continuous operation of industry involves 7-day labour. In Minnesota in 1909, 98,558 men, or approximately 14% of the gainfully employed males in that state, were working every day in the week. In New York in 1910, out of 335,000 union mem- bers in a number of specified industries, more than 10% worked 7 days in the week. Many establishments which operate continu- ously, such as iron and steel plants, paper mills, glass and chemical works, combine the 1 2-hour day with the 7-day week, and in not a few cases require their employees to alternate weekly or fortnightly between day and night shifts, working 24^ hours without rest when the change is made. Telephone operators in New York State receive 150% pay for the first Sunday on duty each month, and 200% pay for additional Sundays: the amount of Sunday work varies with the locality from every other Sunday to one in every fifteen.
While more than a dozen states have made Saturday afternoon a legal holiday, few, if any, have made effective provision for the enforcement of this or other laws fixing legal holidays. The exten- sion of the Saturday half-holiday during recent years has been due to the initiative of the employer or to trade-union activity. The short workday on Saturday is more often found in summer than in winter, and more often among clerical and mercantile than among indus- trial workers. In 1914 the Consumers' League induced most of the large stores in New York City to close all day Saturday during July and August. In the summer of 1920, 25 of the largest department stores in the city closed all day on Saturday during July and Aug., and nearly as many for half the day. This was found actually to pay, as the number of shoppers in summer was small on Saturdays. In smaller communities stores closed Wednesday or Thursday. This movement of a regular weekday holiday in summer seems to
1 Varies greatly with locality. No general averages attempted.
