Wage-Rate Changes in Manufacturing Industries in November,

1931

F THE 16,170 manufacturing establishments from which data concerning wage changes were requested, 15,680 establishments, or 97 per cent of the total, reported no wage-rate changes during the month ending November 15, 1931. The 15,680 establishments employed 2,600,649 workers in November, 1931, or 95.1 per cent of the 2,735,017 employees in all establishments from which wage-rate changes were requested.

Decreases in rates of wages were reported by 490 establishments, or 3 per cent of the total number of establishments surveyed. These decreases, averaging 10.7 per cent, affected 134,368 employees, or 4.9 per cent of all employees in the establishments reporting.

WAGE CHANGES REPORTED IN MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES BETWEEN OCTOBER 15 AND NOVEMBER 15, 1931

WAGE CHANGES REPORTED IN MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES BETWEEN OCTO BER 15 AND NOVEMBER 15, 1931-Continued

Recent Wage Changes Reported by Trade-Unions

UNION

NION and municipal wage and hour changes reported to the bureau during the past month and occurring during the past four months are shown in the following table. The tabulation covers 7,807 workers, 999 of whom were reported to have gone on the 5-day work week.

In addition to those for which changes were reported, the following unions reported renewed wage agreements: Butchers, San Francisco, Calif.; mailers, St. Louis, Mo.; news writers, Scranton, Pa.; stereotypers, Dallas, Tex.

RECENT WAGE CHANGES, BY INDUSTRY, OCCUPATION, AND LOCALITY, SEPTEMBER TO DECEMBER, 1931

RECENT WAGE CHANGES, BY INDUSTRY, OCCUPATION, AND LOCALITY, SEPTEMBER TO DECEMBER, 1931-Continued

Collection of Unpaid Wages in California, 1929-30

UT of every 100 complaints received in the biennial period 1929–30,

of Industrial Relations, 88 were complaints of violations of the wage-payment laws, for wage claims. Of the 60,469 wage claims. filed in these two years, 61.8 per cent were settled. The collection of unpaid wages in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1930, totaled $1,082,857.34, which was $30,931.55, or 2.9 per cent, more than in the previous 12 months. In the two fiscal years ending June 30, 1930, the amount of such wages collected was $2,134,783.13. The average amount collected per wage claim settled during these two years was $57.16, or approximately 81.1 per cent of the average amount involved per wage claim. Of the 60,469 wage claimants who filed claims in the biennial period closed June 30, 1930, 41.5 per cent were in the manufacturing and mechanical industries, 13.8 per cent in domestic and personal service, and 12.7 per cent in agricultural industries.

It is reported that many of the workers who avail themselves of the division's service would lose their wages were it not for the efforts of that office on their behalf. Since practically all wage claims are collected without recourse to court actions, the complainants are not obliged to lose their time and earnings through protracted court procedures. Probably if it were necessary for wage claimants to employ attorneys in these cases, the legal fees would be from 10 to 25 per cent of the amounts involved in the claims. But since approximately 64 per cent of the wage claims filed are for less than $55 it would seem that a large number of the claimants could not afford the time from their jobs to prosecute, even if they were able to employ attorneys.

1 California. Department of Industrial Relations. First biennial report, 1927-1930. Sacramento, 1931.

It is roughly estimated in the report under review that the division saves the wage claimants from one-fourth to one-third of the collected wages; for example, from $266,848 to $355,797 per annum of the $2,134,783 collected in the biennium ending June 30, 1930.

Relative Importance of Check and Cash Methods of Wage Payment in Illinois

STUDY of methods and frequency of wage payment in Illinois was made in May, 1931, by the division of statistics and research of the Illinois Department of Labor. An article in the October, 1931, Labor Bulletin, issued by the State department of labor, gives data from this study showing, by industry, the relative importance of the check and cash methods of wage payment and the frequency with which payments are made.

A marked preference was found among employers for the payment of wages by check, 86.1 per cent of the reporting firms using this method. Of the total number of wage earners, 89.3 per cent were paid by check and 90.5 per cent of the total wages bill was disbursed in this manner.

Large firms more frequently pay by check than small ones, the firms which paid in cash (13.9 per cent of the total number reporting) disbursing only 9.5 per cent of the total wages bill. A larger percentage of manufacturing than of nonmanufacturing establishments paid by check.

Table 1 shows, by industry, the per cent of reporting establishments paying their employees by check and by cash, respectively, the per cent of wage earners paid by each method, and the per cent of the total wages bill disbursed under each method of payment.

TABLE 1.-RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF CASH AND CHECK METHODS OF WAGE PAYMENT IN ILLINOIS, BY INDUSTRY