The Omaha guide., 1940-12-21

WOMEN'S WAGES AND HOURS
IN NEBRASKA STUDIED BY
THE U. S. WOMEN'S BUREAU
Nebraska's highest paid women
wage earners, judging by their
hourly earnings r employed in
meat packing plants. Lowest
paid women wage earners r
found in creameries and plants
handling eggs and poultry. Wom-
ems earnings in the city of Omaha
are higher than in other places in
the State. These are some of the
findings regarding the States i'm
portant woman-employing occup-
ations presented in the Women's
Bureau, u. S. Department of Lab
or, Bulletin 17,8 "Women's Wages
and Hours in Nebraska" made
public today by the Bureau Dir
ector, Miss Mary Anderson. The
report was written by Arthur T..
Sutherland.
The survey was made in 1898 at.
the request of the State Commits
sioner of Labor and the Nebraska
League if Women Voters. Alth-
ough the survey does not include
every establishment in which wo-
men are employed, data were OBJ
tanned in retail stores, laundries,
dry cleaning plants, beauty shops,
hotels, restaurants, insurance and
wholesale distributing offices and
the manufacturing industries and
l. representative of women's en-
ployment in the State. In all 232
establishments were studied en-
ploying a total of 1886 women.
Of this number. 1856 were in re-
tail trade, 2,108 in manufacturing,
1,027 inho tells and restaurants,
600 in laundries, 125 in beauty
parlors and $40 in offices (other
than those in the foregoing estab
l~ishments).
The study revealed that average
weeks earnings in the meat pack
ing industry were $3.50 and the
average for creameries and plants
handling eggs and poultry was
$500. The average for manufac-
turing as a whole was $14.90 Earn
ings in laundries and in hotels and
store restaurants averaged consid-
erably less than this amount. al
though the report cautions that in
restaurants cash wages are often
supplemented by meals and lodg-
ing and in some occupations by
tips. For none of the three types
of stores included is the average
as much as SIS, while the average
for beauty shops is $15.45.
Hourly earnings, the report
points out, follow somewhat the
same trends, with highest rates in
manufacturing. In each instanc-
es comparative figures show earn
ings of women workers in Omaha
to be at least several cents higher
than those in other places.
The bulletin also includes an an
alysis of earnings during the year
1887 of 1901 women in 104 estab-
hshments. The amount of short
time employment was great, over
one-fifth of all women having been
with the firm less than four weeks.
Office workers had the highest
earnings, their average being
1872. Meat packing paid an av-
erage years wage of $747. The
years earnings were very low in
plants handling food products
other than meat. the average be-
ing only $128. The average for
stores was very low although this
figure, the bulletin says, is influ-
enced greatly by part-time employ
ment.
Most of the women included in
The study worked 40 or more hours
In the week scheduled. Shorter
hours were reported for large pro-
portions of the women, in meat
packjrr, eggs and poultry, laun-
dries and dry cleaning establish
.ents. Hours were longest in
beauty parlors, miscellaneous food
manufacture, and limited priced