HOURS OF LABOR OF WOMEN EMPLOYED IN NEIGHBORHOOD DEPARTMENT AND SMALL RETAIL DRY GOODS STORES DURING NORMAL PERIODS AND DURING THE RUSH SEASON OF 1909, AS REPORTED BY EMPLOYERS.

a A few married women and a few girls under 16 years of age work occasionally mornings and evenings. Girls have to work 4 hours every sixth Sunday.

e Employer stated 3 hours on Sunday and employees had to report only once a month. All employees gave 4 hours on Sunday and said they had to report every other Sunday. Also reported additional 13 hours on Saturday night.

d Employees reported 2 full weeks, which increased the hours considerably; 14 hours were reported Christmas Eve.

Girls work every other Sunday 4 hours.

f Girls work 4 hours on Sunday once a month.

g Day before Christmas was Friday and the Jewish Sabbath began at 5 p. m., so the store was closed The employer stated that the women did not work certain nights and came late in the morning. The girls were not only seen working the nights when they were reported off, but were seen coming an hour earlier in the morning. This would make at least a 61-hour week.

The total number of women 16 years of age and over employed in the 11 representative neighborhood stores covered by the investigation was 618, or approximately 6 per cent of the adult women employees in the neighborhood department and other retail stores of Chicago. In addition there were reported 26 girls under 16 who came under the regulations of 8 hours a day. Five of the stores reported an extra force, usually married women or girls under 16, who worked nights or mornings, but who were not counted a part of the regular force. Of these 618, 100, or about 16 per cent, were personally interviewed on the subject of working hours during the level of business of 1909 and 1910 and during the rush periods of 1909. They are all women who have been working in stores at least since the early part of 1909, and could, therefore, give information for that year. Many of them are women of long experience in the business, who began working at the age of 14 or even younger.

The neighborhood department store may be called a modern department store on a small scale or a large old-fashioned general merchandise store. It supplies every want of the families in the neighborhood from groceries and furniture to evening dresses and tailor-made suits. Since it is in the midst of foreign settlements the saleswomen must

speak not only English, but at least one other language. Girls were found who spoke Bohemian, Polish, Russian, German, and English. The Lithuanian girls are especially in demand because in addition to Lithuanian they usually speak Polish, Bohemian, and German. One Lithuanian girl who could not speak English was found working in a store, but she was as valuable to the store as the girl who spoke only English. The saleswomen live in the neighborhood and know the people who trade at the store. Since most of the women who patronize these stores belong to wage-earning families and are occupied with household duties during the day, it is their custom to shop in the evening. At such times the husbands can stay at home and take care of the children, or go with the wives to approve or disapprove of the purchases. It hardly seems necessary, however, for the women to stay at home during the day to care for the children. In front of one of the large stores visited by the agent, the sidewalk was lined with go-carts, guarded by a store employee, who issued identifying brass checks therefor to the mothers desiring to shop.

Establishment No. 1 in the foregoing table shows long hours throughout the year on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday evenings. This means that the store was nominally open until 9 o'clock on Monday and Thursday evenings and until 10 o'clock on Saturday evening. The store was also open on Sunday morning, but only one or two girls were required in each department to care for the trade. Each girl, therefore, had to report for work on Sunday only about once in 6 weeks, making her average weekly hours for the year 583 instead of 58. In this store the girls did not have to report for work until 8.30 a. m. In most of the other stores they had to be on duty at 8 a. m., regardless of the closing hours. In establishments Nos. 7, 8, and 9 the women were not required to go to work until 8.20 a. m. All the large stores in each neighborhood close at 6 p. m. three nights in the week. On the other nights they remain open until 9 o'clock at least and on Saturday night until 10 o'clock. In different neighborhoods the nights for opening and closing vary, and in one neighborhood all the stores were closed on Sunday. In the other neighborhoods the stores were open Sunday morning, but not all the girls had to report for work every Sunday. In the accompanying table extra hours for the year were added in terms of weekly averages to the total hours for the week under the heading of normal hours. Thus in the case of No. 1, once every 6 weeks the girls must work a 62-hour week. In the case of No. 3, the strain was much greater, for every other week a girl would have to work 65 hours instead of 61. The owner of establishment No. 2 reported that his employees worked on Sunday only once a month and then only 3 hours. His employees on the main floor, however, reported that they had to work 4 hours every other Sunday. Instead of 60 hours,

therefore, for 3 weeks of the month and 63 on the fourth week, they worked 60 hours one week and 64 the next throughout the year. This rule applies to all of his women employees except the few on the upper floors who do not work at all on Sundays.

The normal hours as given in the tabulation for the establishments are strictly true for four of the stores. For the other seven stores the hours as reported are only approximately correct, as the individual employees interviewed reported longer hours in almost every case. This is explained by the fact that on the nights when the stores remain open the doors are open until the last customer has gone, even though this may be some time after the nominal closing hour. Thus in one store that was supposed to close at 9 p. m. on Thursday night no one ever got away before 9.05 and many could not leave before 9.30 p. m. The Saturday night closing hour is very elastic. Some stores that are supposed to close at 10 p. m. are open any time from 10.30 p. m. to 11 p. m. and even later.

In the case of establishment No. 6, the manager reported the hours as given, saying the girls did not go to work until 9 a. m. and did not work on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings. Later this store was visited on evenings when it was reported as closed, and not only was the store open, but the very girls who said they did not work on the evenings named were found selling goods. They were also seen going to work at 8 a. m. instead of 9 a. m. It was not possible to talk to the girls alone, for the manager followed the agent around whenever such an attempt was made. Thus, 67 hours a week would be more truthful than 55 hours. The latter probably shows more nearly what could be done to shorten hours than what is done.

The need of keeping these neighborhood stores open evenings on half of the nights each week seems to be due rather to competition between stores than to the real need of the customers. Both managers and girls reported that not many years ago the stores were open every night except one. Now they are closed three nights a week. The owner of a large store in one neighborhood reported that he does better business now than he did under the longer hours, and if all the stores were obliged to close earlier he would be glad to close, for he could so arrange the hours that there would be no inconvenience to him. In another near-by neighborhood the large stores have closed all day Sunday for more than a year. The manager of the largest one stated that there had been no loss of trade because of the closing. The people quickly learned to adapt themselves to the store hours. Since the saleswomen in these stores speak the language and know the taste of the people who buy of them, and since even car fare downtown is an expense item to be considered among the people of these neighborhoods, there seems little danger that the neighbor

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hood stores would be deserted for the downtown stores. Besides, they are too great a convenience in a city of "long distances."

Among the more experienced saleswomen who were interviewed. on the subject, the general opinion was that the people could be educated to do shopping during the week days just as well as at night and on Sundays. But all the stores would have to close or none could afford to. The saleswomen complain bitterly of the long hours of standing even when there is no rush season. Many when asked concerning their health, reported swollen and aching feet and frequently broken arches, painful menstruation, and other disorders. In a few of the stores stools are provided and the girls are advised to sit down when not busy. In other stores the only seats the girls had were boxes that they hunted up themselves.(") They were afraid to use even these when the managers or floor men were around. The most bitter complaints were of the added long hours of Saturday night, especially when they had to get up and work again Sunday morning. In spite of the fact that the larger stores close half of the evenings in a week, there are small stores, employing from 1 to 6 women each, which stay open either every night in the week or every night but one. Of course, the number of saleswomen in these small stores compared with the total number in neighborhood stores is very small and not representative of general conditions. In one neighborhood two small stores were found to be open every night until 10 o'clock; three were open four nights until 10, and one was open four nights until 9.30. The regular hours for a woman in another small store were found to be 65 each week, and 73 hours for 4 weeks before Christmas. She reported very little opportunity to sit down. When she was not waiting on customers, there was cleaning and straightening up to do about the store.

However, in spite of the strain of long hours on half of the days of the year, the greatest strain occurs during the stores' busy season in December. This lasts from 1 to 2 weeks before Christmas each yearin the largest number of stores 2 full weeks before Christmas Day. The only exception to this rule was the 10 weeks reported by a cloak and suit store (establishment No. 6). Four of these 10 weeks were before Christmas and 6 before Easter. However, as has been explained, the hours reported by the employer for these 10 weeks are not as long as the actual working hours in this store. During the holiday busy season the stores remain open every night in the week from 9 to 11 o'clock, depending on the customers. On Christmas Eve the closing

a A law requiring "a reasonable number of suitable seats," and permission to use them when "employees are not necessarily engaged in the active duties for which they are employed," and their use "at all times when such use would not actually and necessarily interfere with the proper discharge of the duties of such employees," has been in force in Illinois since January 1, 1910. (See Bulletin 85, p. 547.)

hour was even later. The hours reported by the managers for these 2 weeks are very conservative statements of the case. They may have desired to close at the time they reported, but the doors were not closed or the lights turned out, and the saleswomen had to remain and serve customers until 9.30, 10, and 10.30 every evening the first week, and until 10, 10.30, 11, 11.30, 12, and even 1 o'clock every evening the week before Christmas. Some could leave earlier than others, for whenever business ceased in a department the girls were allowed to go. A study of the hours reported by individuals will give a fair idea of the strain of those 2 weeks. Thus, 32 out of the 100, or almost one-third of the individuals, reported 80 hours or more for the week before Christmas. Only 1 of the 32 had worked less than 72 hours the week before that. One saleswoman at a bargain table reported 76 hours the second week before Christmas and 864 hours the week before. The culmination of the strain ended Christmas Eve with a 13-hour day. None of these girls worked less than 13 hours the day before Christmas and 1 reported working 143 hours. Fifty-six more of these saleswomen, or 88 out of the 100, worked more than 70 hours the week before Christmas, and only 22 of these had less than 70 hours the week before that. Out of the 100, 12 reported working only between 60 and 70 hours these 2 weeks. Of the 100, 20 girls worked 14 hours or more the day before Christmas, 39 more, or 59 out of the 100, worked 13 hours or more the day before Christmas. Only 5 worked less than 12 hours on this day, and 2 of these were in a store owned by Hebrews who closed at 5 o'clock on Friday, since Christmas happened to fall on Saturday in 1909.

Not only are the hours increased to meet the Christmas rush, but more help is employed. Even then, however, each employee is worked to the limit of endurance. Two girls reported a week's illness in bed as a result of the strain of the busy season, and nearly every girl reported excessive pains in the feet and extreme exhaustion.

The following is a verbatim extract from a letter written by a girl in a neighborhood store to a city department, under the evident assumption that jurisdiction lodged in such department. The girl was afraid to sign her name lest her "boss" might hear of it and she would lose her position. The appeal and the sentiment are typical of the utterances of all of the girls who had an opportunity to talk when no one connected with the store was within hearing.

CHICAGO, ILL., May 23, 1910. DEAR SIR: I am writing you a few lines. to ask you If you would please be so kind and Do me a favor. there is so many Rules now about diferent things that I Dont se Why aint there a Rule of having the stores closed evenings Why Its a sham the Way. the store keepers make us Poor Girls work 14 and 134 hours a Day and then If a Person askes to get of a evening Why thy scold and Wont let us off. I am a poor hard Working girl and I must Work for our Family Because I have no father and I am sick to On account of Working so