tories expresses it in his letter, "The determining
factor in fixing the minimum was the lowest
amount upon which a girl could live in this state,
if she had to keep herself." Thus it is the budget
of the girl living alone which guided the wage
board rather than the estimate of cost for girls liv-
ing at home and partially assisted by their families.
Moreover, it is not only wage rates for a single week
which are considered. The inspector gives this in-
teresting information: "The amount of lost time
was also taken into consideration, and, as other
184
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trades akin to this had at that time fixed a mini-
mum of 1 6s. per week of 48 hours, it was consid-
ered that, if a wage of 20s. was fixed, this would
allow of some provision being made for lost time/'
Thus the board evidently assumed that a milliner
in Victoria was out of work about 20 per cent of the
year. If we were to apply the same measure to
New York milliners, a girl earning a wage of $10 a
week in millinery will suffer a reduction in earnings
due to irregular employment during the course of
the year, so that her actual weekly income, after
making allowance for slack season, would be ap-
proximately $8.00. Thus, if Ji58.oo be the minimum
standard in regular employment, the equivalent
for a milliner would be J 10. This is an attempt to
relieve the hardship of loss of time and wages by
increasing the minimum income in busy season.
Finally, the inspector adds, "As the cost of living
increased in the State, the minimum wage was
raised to 25s. per week of 48 hours." This would
indicate an assumption on the part of the wage
board that the cost of living in Victoria increased
25 per cent between the two awards of 1907 and
191 3.
In the award of 19 13, the workers were divided
into two groups; first, "all adults" who were to
receive a minimum rate of 25s. per week of 48
hours, and who are called "minimum wage work-
ers"; and second, "apprentices and improvers"
whose rates of pay were specified each year for six
years of employment, varying from 5s. in the first
185
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
A SEASONAL INDUSTRY
year to 20s. in the sixth, after which they received
the minimum wage. Their numbers are limited
in a definite ratio with reference to experienced
workers, with not more than one apprentice to
every three "or fraction of three" of the so-called
minimum wage workers who receive the minimum
rate of 25s. or higher, and not more than five im-
provers to every such "minimum wage worker."*
What, then, has been the effect of this regulation
of wages by collective bargaining in the name of
government? The inspector tells us that the num-
ber of milliners has not decreased, that the average
wages have steadily advanced for the better-paid
as well as for the low-wage workers, that no diffi-
culty has been encountered in securing compliance
with the awards, and that few violations have come
to the attention of the factory inspectors. Do the
statistics available support or modify these con-
clusions?
The chief inspector has sent us data which we
present in four statistical tablesf showing (Return
* An apprentice is defined as any person under twenty-one, bound
by indentures of apprenticeship, or one who is over twenty-one and
has the special sanction of the Minister of Labor to be formally
apprenticed. The word "improver" is a somewhat nondescript
term, covering anyone under twenty-one who is not an apprentice,
not a piece worker, and not yet a regular "minimum wage worker."
If over twenty-one, such a person must hold a special license from
the Minister to be paid as an improver. It is in accordance with
these definitions that the tables sent us from Victoria are constructed,
with the group of apprentices and improvers divided in age groups
from fourteen to twenty-one, and with separate figures for "mini-
mum wage workers," and in the last four years, for piece workers as
a distinct group*
t See pp. 259-361.
186
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PUBLIC CONTROL
No. I A) number of women employed by ages
and type of position and (Return No. i B) aver-
age weekly wages in each of these groups for each
year from 1907 to 19 14, during the operation of
the law; size of millinery establishments (Return
No. 2); and wages and numbers employed by
ages in 1906 (Return No. 3), before the act came
into effect.
Although the number employed in 1906, the
year before the wage board came into existence,
was 1,505, compared with 1,526 in 1914, an indi-
cation of a stationary condition, the fluctuations
in intervening years were considerable, reaching
a maximum of 1,810 in 1909 and a minimum of
1,364 in 19 12. In the minimum year every group
showed decreases. For the period as a whole, al-
though the total remained almost the same at the
end as at the beginning, the adult "minimum
wage workers" and the piece workers increased,
while apprentices and improvers decreased. In
19 14, of every hundred workers, 36 were in the
experienced group as compared with 18 in every
hundred in 1907. The chief inspector of fac-
tories ascribes the decrease in juvenile employes
to an amendment to the child labor law, which
raised the minimum age for employment from
thirteen to fifteen years except by special per-
mission "in necessitous cases." The figures do
not indicate, however, that this would account for
more than a fraction of the change. Apprentices
and improvers under fifteen numbered only 46 in
187
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A SEASONAL INDUSTRY
1907, and but seven in 19 14. In both years they
formed but a small proportion of the total.
Our primary interest, of course, is in the effect
of the act on wages, whether it raises the under-
paid to a fair standard, whether it still makes pos-
sible earnings above the minimum, or whether it
has a levelling tendency. The table (Return No.
I B, p. 260) shows clearly that for the, workers as
a whole the average weekly wages have increased
steadily each year; that in 19 14 these were 17s.
I id. as compared with iis. 9d. in 1907, or with
I OS. lod. in 1906, the year before the law became
operative. This represents an increase of 65 per
cent between 1906 and 19 14, with the increase be-
tween 1907, when milliners were included under
the act, to 1914, amounting to 53 per cent. If
each group be considered separately, instances
are disclosed of decreases in average wages within
that period, as in the case of apprentfces and im-
provers fifteen years old, who averaged 3s. 5d. in
1910 and 2S. lod. in 191 1, or in the case of those
seventeen years old, who averaged 5s. 5d. in 1908
and 4s. lod. in 1909. If, however, the period as a
whole be considered, each group shows increases
in 19 14 compared with 1907.
The gains were largest among apprentices and
improvers, whose increases in average earnings in
19 14 as compared with 1907 ranged from 37 per
cent for the group of workers twenty-one years
old to 82 per cent for those fourteen years old.
The lowest rate of increase was for the "minimum
188
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PUBLIC CONTROL
wage workers" and the piece workers. As these
were recorded separately from 191 1 to 19 14 but
grouped together before 191 1, it is necessary to
combine them in 19 14 for comparison with 1907.
The average wages of minimum wage workers,
including piece workers, in 19 14, are thus found to
be 32s. as compared with 31s. 4d. in 1907, an in-
crease of but 2.1 per cent. Comparison of the
present wages of the different groups of workers
with wages in 1906 is not entirely valid because
even though the workers were grouped by ages in
that year, no division into apprentices, improvers,
or experienced workers is shown in the table.
Small as the increase has been in the average
wages of the experienced workers, however, it is
noteworthy that their average earnings in 19 14
were 28 per cent higher than the rate set by law.
This certainly shows that it is possible to earn
more than the legal minimum. On the other
hand, the piece workers averaged only 20s. id.
although it is the intent of the law that piece
rates shall be so adjusted as to enable the "aver-
age worker" to earn the standard minimum wage,
which was 25s. in 19 14.
Has the minimum wage board been able to keep
the wage standard advancing with the rising cost
of living? On this point we have no adequate
data, since we do not know the cost of living in
Victoria. We have merely a hint which gives the
basis for an illustrative discussion. We are told
by the chief inspector that the wage standard was
189
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A SEASONAL INDUSTRY
raised from 20s. to 25s. because of the increase in
the cost of living. This would indicate an increase
of 25 per cent in the cost of living, and earnings
should have increased in that ratio if the workers
were to be as well off in 19 14 as in 1907. We have
seen that for the group as a whole the increase was
much larger than 25 per cent, but for the "mini-
mum wage workers*' it was very much less. The
average milliner in this group had 8d. more in
her purse in 19 14 than in 1907, but she needed
7s. lod. more with which to buy what she had had
in 1907. Real wages and not merely money wages
must be the measure of the worker's welfare.
For such a measure, however, exact facts re-
garding the purchasing power of a dollar in jetail
buying are essential. To discover the effects of a
minimum wage law on wages we need to find out
the course of money wages, and through knowl-
edge of the changing value of a dollar, to trans-
late money wages into real wages. Moreover, we
must know what changes have taken place in
processes of work affecting the wage scale, what
effect rising standards have had on individual
workers, whether they have been replaced by
others, whether they have been subjected to in-
creased strain in order to increase output, or
whether a better standard of living and better
management of shop conditions have resulted in
increased efficiency, with less strain for the worker
and more satisfactory production for the industry.
Finally, we must begin to search for those most
190
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
PUBLIC CONTROL
elusive of all facts, the effect of increased wages
in an industry upon the selling price of its products,
and the sum total of the effects of changes in money
wages upon the entire cost of living. These are
not matters of simple arithmetic, and the apparent
effects or the logical forecast as to results may be
wide of the mark. Higher wages may result in
decreased cost of production. Higher prices fol-
lowing increased wages may not prove to be justi-
fied by any proportionate change in producing
cost, and may result merely in enhanced profits
for the entrepreneur. The fact is that on many of
these vital points, conclusions are impossible be-
cause data are lacking.
The facts which we have about wages in the
millinery trade in Victoria concern merely num-
bers employed and actual average wages for the
different groups in successive years. We have no
data about changes in personnel, or duration of
employment of individuals. The wage data do
not include range of earnings or the proportions
of workers earning various specified amounts, —
a more satisfactory measure than an average. As
to changes in cost of living we have merely a hint.
We cannot, therefore, draw definite conclusions
as to the effects of wage legislation. The facts do
show that the average wages in the trade as a
whole have increased, that the earnings of the
lowest paid workers, who must be the object of
greatest concern, have shown more substantial
gains than those of the highest paid, that these
191
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A SEASONAL INDUSTRY
latter also have increased but to a less degree than
the lower grades, and that the difference between
the wage of the best paid and that of the lowest
paid is less than before the law became effective.
The average wage of adult workers is distinctly
above the minimum set by law. On the whole,
the workers seem to have made distinct gains
while the law has been in effect. The case for wage
legislation rests not alone upon such statistics as
we have been able to quote but also upon the
apparent satisfaction of the people of Victoria, who
since the first enactment of a wage law, in 1896,
have steadily increased the number of industries
to which it applies.*
Perhaps the strongest argument for a wage
board in the millinery trade in New York rests on
the great need for concerted and intelligent action
on the part of employers and employes in a trade
in which at present co-operation is meager, while
its problems are quite beyond the power of in-
dividuals acting alone to solve. In the first place,
some irregularity of employment in the trade is
undoubtedly due to inefficiency in the workers.
It is an occupation attractive to many women.
Frequent changes in the workrooms in the very
height of the season, and the large proportion of
girls whose names appeared on the payroll of any
one shop a week or less give evidence of a group
of drifters whose work probably was not satis-
• Webb, Sidney: Economic Theory of a Legal Minimum Wage.
Journal of Political Economy, December, 19 12. '
192
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
PUBLIC CONTROL
factory to anyone. This frequent change in per-
sonnel was one of the indications of overcrowding
in the trade. On the other hand, it was the testi-
mony of the employers that highly skilled workers
were scarce. Paradoxical as it may seem, these
contradictory statements are simply two phases
of the same general fact, that a higher standard
of workmanship is desirable and that concentra-
tion of work in the hands of the more efficient
would accomplish much in ridding the trade of too
many casual workers.
In raising the standard of workmanship the
public schools undoubtedly have a part to play.
Inadequate training should be discouraged. Pri-
vately controlled commercial schools should be
inspected by public educational authorities and
those that do not measure up to their advertised
promises should be properly disciplined. Perhaps
one of the best remedies for inadequate training
on a commercial basis is to offer sound train-
ing under public auspices. The movement for
industrial education has reached the point where
educators seek the co-operation of employers
and workers. In a trade like millinery, in
which the work is scattered through so many
small establishments, co-operation becomes pos-
sible only when employers, on the one hand, and
employes on the other, have developed some form
of organization enabling them to confer regarding
work problems. A wage board might offer such an
opportunity.
13 193
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A SEASONAL INDUSTRY
In the second place, the attempt to agree on
Standards of work and wages in wage board con-
ferences, and thus to substitute an orderly, reason-
able procedure for the present chaotic individual
bargain, would be likely not only to secure more
adequate wages for the workers, but to lead
employers to study together this important fac-
tor in their success, — the wage scale. It would
help them to see that frequent changes in force,
and the low grade work which is the usual
accompaniment of low pay, cost too much. The
impression gained by investigators in many in-
dustries is that the rush of business has precluded
the employer's proper attention to labor ques-
tions, and prevented him even from studying the
facts in his own shop. Many of them have no idea
how much it costs to train a learner or how much
might be gained for the establishment by better
methods of apprenticeship; how much it costs
to change experienced workers and how frequent
these changes are; nor how much the workers earn
in a year and what the advantage would be for the
shop if fewer milliners could be kept at work during
a longer season.
Most important of all the possible results of
establishing wage boards would be the oppor-
tunity for groups of employers as well as employes
to act together to attack the overwhelming prob-
lem of short seasons. Fashion is the chief cause of
unemployment in this trade, — ^fashion and com-
petition. No wage board could accomplish its
194
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
PUBLIC CONTROL
purpose in this industry if it did not adjust rates
with some idea of compensation for lost time in
dull season. A wise board would go further and
by its adjustment of rates put a premium upon
regularity of employment, or a tax upon irregu-
larity, by some such device as requiring payment
of an additional sum to short-time workers. If,
however, plans like this should prove inadequate
in the large number of seasonal trades, some form
of unemployment insurance may prove to be
necessary. Whatever the plan, it would probably
be successful in proportion as it brought pressure
to bear to lengthen the seasons. Lengthening the
seasons is going to be in part a process of skilful
development of a market for slack season goods,
and in part a process of co-operation by the
women to whose whims we commonly attribute
the evil results of changing fashions.
Women themselves will attack the problem be-
fore long. Already they are beginning to be sensi-
tive over the revelations of the amount of unem-
ployment due to frequent changes of style in all
the many branches of the garment trades. Tenta-
tive plans are being discussed now by such
important groups as the General Federation of
Women's Clubs and the Consumers' League to
influence the length of the seasons by educat-
ing women to new standards. Perhaps this discus-
sion by women will help to make employers realize
that the undertaking is possible and promising.
At present employers are so convinced that
195
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
A SEASONAL INDUSTRY
women do not buy hats in dull season, that the most
conscientious buyer finds it difficult to find any
stock in hand in a millinery shop in January or
August. What she finds is usually an advance
model of the coming season, and if she happens to
prefer to wear winter hats while winter lasts she
goes away disappointed. If the employers in the
trade were awake to their opportunities they could
so serve women like her as to encourage rather
than to discourage dull season buying.
At any rate it is a campaign worth undertaking.
Perhaps the first step will be some such state
action as the New York State Factory Investi-
gating Commission had in mind when it proposed
the organization of wage boards to attack two
great problems not now touched by the New York
labor law, — low wages and irregular employment.
196
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SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT ON STATIS-
TICS OF SEASONS AND WAGES
FOR the use of students especially inter-
ested in understanding the basis for conclu-
sions in chapters IV and V, the following
detailed statistics of seasons and wages are pre-
sented.
I. THE SEASONS
Facts regarding irregular employment divide
naturally into two main groups, the first relating
to changes in the demand for labor in the industry
itself, and the second relating to the experiences of
individual workers. Of the fluctuations in the in-
dustry itself, aside from changes in the personnel
of the force, the payrolls told us an eloquent story.
A count of the workers week by week shows the
great variations in numbers employed in different
months of the year. The total of wages paid each
week serves also as an approximate indication of the
size of the labor force. The two sets of figures are
not identical, for the number of employes may re-
main the same, but they may work only part time
and thus the wages will be less. As indicating
both the income of the workers and the production
of the factory, the dollar paid in wages is the most
197
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
A SEASONAL INDUSTRY
accurate unit for measuring fluctuations in em-
ployment. Table 29 shows both the numbers
employed and the total wages paid each week.
The diagrams on pages 72 to 75 picture the same
variations.
The significance of these facts has been dis-
cussed in previous chapters. It is evident that the
industry is responsible for a great waste of labor
force. It is possible to estimate how great this
waste is by ascertaining the total wages paid in
the shops investigated in their maximum weeks,
and the total wages which would have been paid
in a year of fifty-two maximum weeks, and then
comparing this annual, estimated wage bill with
the total actually paid to milliners in these shops.
Table 30 shows the result. The figures in the first
column were secured by first determining the week
for each establishment in which the payroll was
at its maximum, and then adding together the total
wages in the selected week for each shop. The
figures, therefore, do not represent an amount paid
out in any one week in the year, but the sum
of maximum weekly outlay for wages in each of
the shops whenever that maximum may have oc-
curred.
It seems fair to conclude that the $24,000 paid
in wages in the maximum weeks in all branches of
the trade represents the labor capacity of the in-
dustry in these shops. At least in one week dur-
ing the year each shop must purchase an amount
of labor of which this figure is an index. It is not
198
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT
TABLE 29. — NUMBER OF WOMEN EMPLOYED AND
TOTAL WAGES PAID IN RETAIL, RETAIL-WHOLE-
SALE, AND WHOLESALE MILLINERY ESTABLISH-
MENTS IN EACH WEEK OF THE YEAR I913
Number
of week
RetaU
Retail-
wholesale
Wholesale
All branches of
trade
Women
em-
Total
Women
em-
Total
Women
em-
Total
Women
em-
Total
ployed
wages
ployed
wages
ployed
wages
ployed
wages
z
98
<I,003
157
<3,I53
786
16,545
1,041
I9.700
3
100
1.119
196
2,748
932
9.090
1,338
12.957
3
137
1.346
276
3,593
z,oi6
10,508
1,4x9
15.447
4
131
1.504
31Z
4.X58
1.074
xi,3S5
1,516
16,917
s
153
I.7S9
336
4.S76
Z.X03
11,446
X.591
17.781
6
170
1,914
3,090
342
4.853
1,168
11,989
x,68o
18,755
I
Z93
353
5.092
1,155
13,153
x,700
X9.341
8
3 16
3,311
358
5.048
i,X38
I3,X6I
X,7I3
19.520
9
333
It^
351
5.098
1,103
13,399
1,686
19,846
zo
340
334
^•!'2
1,038
11.893
1,6X3
19,348
IZ
337
3,676
^22
4.856
991
II. 141
i,S6o
18,673
13
244
2,753
326
4.67s
939
10,095
X.509
17,523
13
350
2,793
316
4.654
865
8,775
1.431
16,333
14
353
^'iV
313
4.560
804
7.963
1.369
15.400
'1
2SS
3,860
306
4.483
747
6,885
1.308
14,338
16
350
3,804
301
4.4S4
639
5.595
I.X90
Z3,853
'Z
341
3,730
389
4.314
583
4.930
I,XI3
XI. 954
18
^H
3.643
254
3,900
518
t^
x,oo6
xo,887
19
308
2406
343
3.803
4S9
909
XO.089
30
188
2,174
239
3,739
43S
3.833
863
9.735
31
178
2,087
333
3.6SX
436
3.786
836
9.534
33
Itt
I.98I
308
3.28s
4SI
3.641
833
8,907
33
1,859
174
3.915
432
3.6x3
763
8,386
»4
Z48
1.67s
157
3,408
437
3.833
742
7.905
!l
135
z,537
146
3,366
470
4.255
751
8.158
36
Z19
1.304
Z32
2,039
533
4.763
784
8,105
U
U
809
815
113
148
1,836
3,311
520
720
4.111
6,534
721
I,xi6
6,746
9,650
39
70
704
315
3.084
831
8,063
11,850
30
S?
603
255
3,834
897
8,775
i.aiS
I3,3XZ
3Z
z?2
69s
294
4,4x2
935
9,464
9.906
1.293
X4.S7Z
32
'•1^2
323
4.734
972
1.4x1
IS.992
33
168
1,816
337
4.880
989
XO.533
JliJ
17.219
34
197
3,173
346
5.000
1,025
ix,074
18,346
3S
lu
Itl
354
S.052
Z.03Z
XX. 387
1.583
18,774
36
355
$.046
979
10,978
X.S72
18,663
37
350
3,873
350
S.072
957
XX. 859
X.557
19,803
38
339
3,805
m
5.080
939
11.736
Z.523
19,63 z
39
351
2,896
4.927
916
XI.404
X.503
19.227
40
350
2,938
335
4.765
8^1
8,115
1.426
X5.8Z8
41
348
3,890
332
4.755
780
7,957