Mr. MURDOCK. Reference was made by Mr. Loomis in his testimony Monday to the question of whether or not American industry generally has adopted the 40-hour week with 48 hours' pay. At the request of some members of the committee I asked the Commissioner of Labor Statistics to prepare a statement on it. I have now received the statement, which is dated March 13, 1051, and I request that it be received as committee exhibit No. 11.

The CHAIRMAN. It will be received and marked as requested and made a part of the record.

(The document referred to was marked "Committee exhibit No. 11," was made a part of the record, and is as follows:)

COMMITTEE EXHIBIT No. 11

Mr. RAY R. MURDOCK,

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR,
BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS,
Washington 25, D. C., March 13, 1951.

General Counsel, Subcommittee on Labor-Management Relations,
United States Senate, Washington, D. C.

DEAR MR. MURDOCK: In response to your request of March 12, I am enclosing two copies of a brief statement on general changes in wage rates and in average hours and earnings in railroad transportation and in other selected situations and industries. I am transmitting a copy of the statement separately to Senator Murray.

I trust you will find these materials useful.
Very truly yours,

EWAN CLAGUE, Commissioner of Labor Statistics.

GENERAL WAGE RATE CHANGES AND CHANGES IN HOURS AND EARNINGS, RAILROAD TRANSPORTATION AND OTHER SELECTED SITUATIONS AND INDUSTRIES

This statement deals briefly with two types of information on wage change: (1) General increases in wage rates agreed to since 1939 in the railroad industry and in 22 other important companies or associations; (2) changes in average earnings and hours of work in selected industries, including railroad transportation, for specified dates since 1945.

1. General wage increases in selected situations, 1939–50

The attached table 1 was designed to provide a quick review of the major changes in wage rates put into effect by selected companies and associations since 1939. Similar information is shown in table 1-a for the railroad industry. This presentation represents an oversimplification of some complex wage bargains. For example, the handling of job-rate adjustments or intraplant differentials and interplant or geographical adjustments differed among the situations covered and cannot be adequately accounted for in a tabulation of this type. Changes in supplementary wage benefits such as pensions, insurance, and paid holidays also differed among companies, and within companies between unions. Apart from the importance of supplementary benefits in the postwar collective-bargaining picture, differences in supplementary benefits negotiated often accounted for differences in the amount of general wage-rate changes. Changes in railroad rules, having a money value, are likewise not reflected in table 1-a.

In the case of the bituminous-coal mines, changes in the number of hours worked per day and per week, and the introduction of portal-to-portal pay significantly affected miners' incomes. Prior to November 1943, inside miners were on a 7-hour day (normal hours). Starting in November 1943, three-quarters of an hour of travel time was paid for and the workday was increased by an additional hour at premium rates. In April 1945, the workday paid for was increased by a quarter-hour paid lunch period (to 9 hours), and no distinction was made between travel and work time. Hours in excess of 7 per day were paid for at time and one-half. In July 1947, the basic workday was shortened to 8 hours, including an additional 15-minute paid lunch period, but the previous

1 General wage increases are construed as adjustments that affect an entire establishme one time. Not included are adjustments in individual rates (such as promotions, or merit structure that do not have an immediate and noticeable effect on the general wage level of

The job-classification program initiated by the NWLB in 1944 was not concluded unt the establishment of the new classification structure amounted to 5.2 cents an hour. Retro A 3-cent "annual improvement" increase and a 3-cent decrease in cost-of-living allowa

9-hour pay plus the $1.20 a day increase shown in the table was established as the rate for the 8-hour day. This shortening of the workday without a cut in rates, plus the wage increase, raised straight-time hourly rates by approximately 44 cents. No change in normal hours has since been made. Changes in hours without pay reduction were made on a daily basis only in coal mining. Reductions in the length of the workweek from 6 to 5 days or less, or increases up to 6 days were made in individual mines with corresponding changes in weekly pay. In such cases, premium rates were paid or eliminated as required.

The selection of the companies and associations and the information shown were based on published and incomplete chronologies prepared by the Bureau for its wage chronology series. Tables 1 and 1a do not show increases obtained in certain situations thus far in 1951. These increases, as of March 13, 1951, are: General Motors Corp., Chrysler Corp., and Ford Motor Co.: 5-cents-anhour increase, effective March 5, 1951.

Swift & Co. and Armour & Co.: 9-cents-an-hour increase negotiated, subject to WSB approval. Panel appointed to review increase.

Aluminum Co. of America and AWU-AFL: 3-cents-an-hour increase, effective December 1950.

Bituminous coal: $1.60-a-day increase, effective February 1, 1951.

RAILROADS

Operating employees: 122 cents an hour for yardmen and 5 cents for employees on road service by General Order No. 2 issued February 8, 1951, by Department of the Army. These increases were retroactive to October 1, 1950.

Nonoperating employees: 122 cents an hour, effective February 1, 1951, together with provision for cost-of-living wage adjustments at rate of 1 cent per hour for each one-point change in consumers' price index.

2. Earnings and hours in selected industries

Table 2 shows earnings and hours for specified periods in railroad transportation and in 32 of 133 manufacturing industries in which average weekly hours of approximately 48 or more were being worked in January 1945. In January 1949, weekly hours in each of these 32 manufacturing industries averaged about 40. The number of wage earners employed in these industries in January 1949 was about half the number employed in the earlier period.

When hours were reduced at the end of the war, average weekly earnings typically declined, as the data for January 1946 indicates. Subsequent adjustments in wage rates, beginning generally in 1946, served gradually to bring the level of weekly earnings above the level prevailing immediately after the end of the war. Thus, in January 1949, average weekly earnings in all but 2 of the 32 industries were above the levels of January 1945. The two exceptions were rubber tires and inner tubes and ship and boat building and repairing. In the rubber-tires industry, weekly hours declined to 35 in January 1949, from an average of 49 in January 1945. In the ship and boat building and repairing industry, employment between the two periods had declined from 1,020,000 to 83,800.

In railroad transportation, where the decline in hours was less sharp than in many other industries, average weekly earnings in January 1947 exceeded the January 1945 level.

TABLE 1a.-General wage changes in the railroad industry, 1939 to 1950