give free consultations to workers, visit sick employees, and in a few instances attend and advise families of workers. One of these plants also provided dental and optical services free, another made available the regular services of an eye, ear, nose, and throat specialist at no cost to the employee, and a few arranged with local specialists for service at reduced rates. Hospitals for workers were maintained by two more of these establishments. Although the plants with general health programs were fairly large (nearly all had more than 500 employees), their employees engaged in the manufacture of set-up boxes comprised only about 5 percent of all workers covered. The remaining establishments in the industry did nothing more than comply with the law with respect to emergency first-aid kits. Insurance, Pension, Savings, and Loan Plans Insurance plans constituted the most common form of welfare work engaged in in the set-up paper-box industry. In August 1935, almost 30 percent of all workers covered were in plants with insurance or similar plans, comprising 20.8 percent of all employees in the paper-box factories and 68.4 percent of those in consumer plants and paper-manufacturing and printing establishments. Insurance plans were more common in southern plants than in northern establishments. They even extended to the very small establishments, although rising in frequency with an increase in size of plants. (See table 31.) A majority of the plans provided life insurance, and several also covered sickness, accidents, disability, and hospitalization. Formal pension plans for wage earners were found in four of the large consumer plants. The cost of insurance or similar protection was shared jointly by the company and employees in 62 of the 90 establishments that had such benefits. It was paid entirely by the company in 11 plants, the entire cost was borne by the employee in 13, and 4 did not report as to who paid the cost. The mutual benefit associations were partially supported by the company in 3 of the 11 establishments where such existed. Other company sponsored plans which were intended to benefit employees in regard either to savings or loans embraced building and loan associations, found in two large plants, and formal savings plans, found in three establishments, all of the consumer group. In a number of plants there were informal company plans for lending money to be repaid in installments, without interest, and in a few there were welfare clubs for employee mutual aid. TABLE 31.-Classification of establishments by kind of insurance as to region and size of plant, August 1935 Only employees of set-up box departments are included here. Region and size of plants 4 plants that provided insurance also had mutual benefit associations that gave additional service. Home or Contract Work At one time the set-up paper-box industry employed a considerable number of home workers. Special inquiry regarding home workers brought out the fact that comparatively little work was sent out during the precode period of May 1933, almost none during the August 1934 code period, and little more during the August 1935 postcode period. In fact, the number of plants following this practice was 12 in 1933, only 3 in 1934, and 6 in 1935. These establishments were widely scattered, being located in Minneapolis, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and other Pennsylvania cities; Baltimore, New York City, and a few New Jersey and Delaware cities. Most of them had fewer than 50 employees. The type of work sent out in August 1935 consisted of hand work on fancy boxes, such as making bows to decorate candy boxes, assembling partitions for candy and cosmetics boxes, etc. Two plants gave such work only to regular employees, who took it home with them at night, two gave it to wives or other relatives of workers, and one only to persons who had formerly been regularly employed. However, one establishment sent out work on contract during all of the three periods to a family that distributed it among neighbors. Such work, of course, was paid for entirely on a piece-rate basis, and no record was kept of the hours of work required for performance. The plants assumed no responsibility for violation of minimum-wage laws and of laws regulating maximum hours of work and night work of women and minors. Home work was prohibited under art. V of the code. Appendix I.--Employment, Man-Hours, and Pay Rolls The relative gains in employment, man-hours, and pay rolls in the plants covered in the set-up paper-box industry between May 1933, August 1934, and August 1935 are presented in table 32. The figures in this table, which include both percentages of change and index numbers, are for identical establishments. The index numbers are also shown graphically in chart 10. TABLE 32.-Relative changes in employment, man-hours, and pay rolls for identical plants Employment for all workers in the industry increased by 16.2 percent between May 1933 and August 1934, with the gain for males exceeding by a narrow margin that for females. The rise between August 1934 and August 1935 for both sexes amounted to only 6.9 percent, the increase for females being somewhat larger than for males. During the period as a whole, the advance in employment for all workers was 24.2 percent, and practically the same relative change was reported for each sex. Due to the reduction in weekly hours caused by the code, the increase in man-hours between May 1933 and August 1934 was con 1 The percentages of change between May 1933 and August 1934 are based on data for 277 identical establishments, and those between August 1934 and August 1935 are based on 424 identical establishments. In order to obtain the percentages of change for the period as a whole, the changes between May 1933 and August 1934 and those between the latter period and August 1935 were linked together. |