Chapter V.-Earnings and Hours by Unionization, Size of

Plant, Size of City, and Type of Plant

Comparisons Between Union and Nonunion Plants

At the time of this survey, there was relatively little organization among workers in the set-up paper-box industry. Altogether, employees were represented by an outside labor union in 34 plants (8.2 percent) in August 1935,' all of which were small paper-box factories. All except two of the union establishments were located in New York City. These two plants were in the Middle West and had agreements with the International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite, and Paper Mill Workers. The remaining 32 establishments, in New York City, dealt with the Paper Box Makers' Union, which was chartered early in 1933 as a federal union affiliated with the American Federation of Labor.

2

In August 1935, the 32 union plants in New York City had 518 workers, as compared with 1,469 employees in the 41 nonunion establishments, which is a sufficient coverage in each case to make it possible to compare wages and hours between the two kinds of shops. (See table 13.) In analyzing the data, however, one should remember that all of the 32 establishments were unionized after May 1933, so that the comparison in this period is between plants that later became organized and those that remained unorganized.3

In May 1933, the average hourly earnings for the plants that later became organized were lower than those for the plants which remained unorganized throughout the entire period. As the former establishments were on the whole smaller than those that remained unorganized, some difference in hourly earnings in May 1933 was to have been expected. (See p. 44.) However, the difference of 4.7 cents. an hour is greater than would be expected from size of plant alone. It appears that organization was effected particularly in establishments that had been below the general competitive average. In spite of

1 In addition, 14 plants (5 paper-box factories, 2 paper manufacturing and printing establishments, and 7 consumer plants) had company unions, works committees, or some other form of employee representation. The distinction between union and nonunion plants made here is that the former had and the latter did not have an agreement with the Paper Box Makers' Union. As this union is organized on an industrial basis and enforces the closed shop, all of the workers in the union establishments were union members. On the other hand, there may have been some employees in the nonunion plants that belonged to the union, but the fact that such establishments did not have an agreement with the union makes it necessary to class them as nonunion plants.

* Some of the 32 plants obtained a verbal agreement as early as September 1933, and many of them had signed written agreements by January 1934. However, it is also possible that a few of the establishments shown as union had not yet signed agreements in August 1934.

⚫The union plants averaged 16 workers, as compared with about 36 for nonunion establishments.

TABLE 13.-Average hourly earnings, average weekly hours, and average weekly earnings by union and nonunion plants in New York City

Percentage change

Type of plant

May 1933 August 1934 August 1935 May 1933 August 1934 May 1933

to August
1934

to August
1935

to August 1955

1 Includes plants not union during this period but organized during the 2 succeeding periods. Due to the fact that certain plants did not have records avaliable in May 1933, the coverage for that period is smaller as compared with later periods, the number of establishments included in 1933 amounting to 17 union and 24 nonunion plants.

the fact that the union plants were small, the average hourly earnings in the union plants exceeded those in the nonunion establishments by 7.0 cents in August 1934 and 8.4 cents in August 1935. Whereas hourly earnings declined 3.7 percent from 1934 to 1935 in unorganized plants, they declined only 0.7 percent in organized establishments. In May 1933, the average workweek of the establishments that were later organized was 4.7 hours longer than that of the group which remained unorganized. Under the code, the workweek in both types of establishments averaged about 36 hours. But in August 1935, when code standards had begun to break down, workers in the union plants averaged 37.0 hours, whereas those in unorganized establishments averaged 39.6 hours per week.

Lastly, the average weekly earnings in union plants exceeded those in nonunion plants by $2.32 in August 1934 and $1.94 in August 1935, due largely to the substantial differential in average hourly earnings enjoyed by union establishments during each of these periods. This was not true, however, prior to the organization of the union plants in May 1933, when their average weekly earnings were slightly lower than those in the nonunion plants, in spite of the fact that the former averaged longer hours than the latter.

The statement often made that wages increase and hours decrease as the size of the plant increases holds true in the set-up paper-box

It will be remembered that in case of mixed plants, i. e., paper mills, printing establishments, and consumer plants, the total rather than just the set-up paper-box employment was used in classifying the establishments according to size.

industry for earnings but not for hours. This may be seen by an examination of the figures in table 14. The comparison here, however, is limited to the 240 identical northern establishments, for which data are available for all three pay-roll periods. The southern coverage is not sufficiently large to justify such a presentation.

TABLE 14.-Average hourly earnings, average weekly hours, and average weekly earnings by size of plant in 240 identical northern establishments

The average hourly earnings varied directly with the size of plant without exception in May 1933. In general, the same relationship existed in both August 1934 and August 1935. The differential between the averages of the smallest plants (under 10 employees) and the largest plants (300 or more employees) amounted to 4.4 cents in May 1933, 4.8 cents in August 1934, and 5.1 cents in August 1935. The smallest plants averaged 2 or 3 cents less than those of intermediate size. There was no persistent or large difference in hourly earnings among the several classes of establishments ranging in size

• For the size classes used in this analysis, the August 1935 coverage in terms of employees was as follows: Plants having under 10 employees, 163; 10 and under 50, 2,251; 50 and under 100, 1,881; 100 and under 300 1,734, 200 and over. 1,607; total employees, 7,636.

from 10 to 300. The largest establishments paid about 2 cents more than those of intermediate size.

The length of the average workweek likewise varied directly with the size of establishment in all three periods, if the plants with 300 or more employees are not considered. The average hours per week of the last-mentioned class, however, were not very much below those found in plants with 100 and under 300 employees. It should also be pointed out that the smallest establishments had a much shorter workweek than any of the other classes of plants, this differential being particularly large after the code.

The trend in average weekly hours from May 1933 to August 1935 differed as between the smallest plants and the other classes of plants. From May 1933 to August 1934, the smallest establishments showed the least reduction in weekly hours. The spread in hours increased between August 1934 and August 1935, for the workweek of the smallest establishments continued to decline, while the other classes of plants had increases in average weekly hours. In general, the increase in weekly hours between August 1934 and August 1935 led to hours as long in August 1935 as in May 1933.

The average weekly earnings varied directly with the size of plant in all three periods without any exception, the differential between the smallest and largest establishments amounting to $3.36 in May 1933, $3.18 in August 1934, and $5.62 in August 1935.

Between May 1933 and August 1934, each class of establishment showed an important increase in average weekly earnings. From August 1934 to August 1935, however, the smallest establishments had a reduction in average earnings per week, as contrasted with small gains in the other classes of plants. The decline in the average weekly earnings of the smallest establishments was brought about by a 7.3percent drop in average weekly hours. As a result, the total relative increase in average weekly earnings for the entire period in the smallest establishments amounted roughly to about half of those found in most of the other classes of plants.

Comparisons by Size of City

Unlike the codes for certain industries, the one for the set-up paperbox industry did not provide for wage differentials by size of city. There is a rather widespread belief that wages are lower and hours of work longer in smaller than in larger cities. The extent to which this is true in the set-up paper-box industry may be seen from table 15,7 which is also limited to the 240 identical establishments of the North.

The August 1935 coverage in terms of employees for each size of city class was as follows: Cities having under 25,000 population, 872; 25,000 and under 100,000, 1,089; 100,000 and under 250,000, 1,233; 250,000 and over, 4,442; total employees, 7,636. The size of city was based on the latest available population data, as furnished by the Bureau of the Census. (Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930, and estimated population as of July 1, 1933.)

TABLE 15.-Average hourly earnings, average weekly hours, and average weekly earnings by size of city in 240 identical northern establishments

In May 1933 the average hourly earnings varied directly with the size of city, the differential between the smallest (under 25,000) and largest (100,000 and over) cities amounting to 3.1 cents. In neither August 1934 nor August 1935 was there any obvious relationship between size of city and hourly earnings. In general, it was true that earnings in cities of 100,000 and over were higher than in cities with a smaller population. But the highest earnings were not found in cities of 250,000 and over, nor did the lowest average occur in cities. of less than 25,000 population.

In both May 1933 and August 1935 the average weekly hours varied indirectly with the size of city, except in case of the largest cities (250,000 and over), which had next to the highest average during these two periods. With the exception of cities of 25,000 and under 100,000, however, the average hours per week varied directly with the size of city in August 1934.

In each of the three periods, the lowest average weekly earnings were for plants in cities of 25,000 and under 100,000. The highest earnings in May 1933 and August 1935 were for plants in cities of less than 25,000, though there was little difference between these average earnings and those in cities of 250,000 and over. In August 1934 the plants in the largest cities had the highest weekly earnings.

Independent Versus Consumer Plants

As mentioned heretofore, this survey covered three kinds of establishments, namely, paper-box plants proper, paper mills and printing