BUREAU OF STATISTICS CHARLES F. GETTEMY, Director LABOR BULLETIN No. 107 (Being Part IV of the Annual Report on the Statistics of Labor for 1915) FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT ON UNION SCALE OF WAGES AND HOURS OF 86 97 99 Table 16. Steam Railroad Employees, Table 17. Street and Electric Railway Employees, Index, by Occupations in Detail, . CAMRONGE, MASS UNION SCALE OF WAGES AND HOURS OF LABOR IN MASSACHUSETTS, 1914. INTRODUCTION. The material presented in this report is the result of a special inquiry relative to the time-rates of wages and hours of labor prevailing in the principal organized trades in Massachusetts in 1914. It constitutes the fifth annual presentation of data of similar nature.1 The data shown herein were obtained principally in July, 1914, at which time schedules of inquiry were sent, with few exceptions, to all of the local trade unions in the Commonwealth whose members were known to be working under a time-rate system. In certain trades there existed piece-rate scales with relation to which, owing to their complicated nature and because of the many factors involved, it was not deemed practical to undertake a study at that time. Industries in which the organizations of employees had not established a scale of wages and hours were not considered; and such industries as the boot and shoe industry, clothing trades, and textile manufacturing, in which only a very small proportion of the workers were on time work, were not included. In many cases, especially among the strongly organized industries like the building trades, a standard scale of wages and hours dominates the trade, although it may never have been formally accepted by the employers. For example, house carpenters in this State seldom work under written agreements with employers, yet they are able, particularly in the larger municipalities, to establish a standard schedule of wages and hours which is virtually in effect in these municipalities. Such scales of wages and hours have been included in this report since they are practically as effective as those in which the 1 Previous reports of this Bureau dealing with the union scale of wages and hours of labor were issued as follows: (1) Prevailing Time-rates of Wages and Hours of Labor, 1910, issued as Part I of the Annual Report on the Statistics of Labor for 1910; (2) Time-rates of Wages and Hours of Labor in Certain Occupations, 1911, issued as Labor Bulletin No. 91; (3) Union Scale of Wages and Hours of Labor, 1912, published in the Fifth Annual Report on Labor Organizations for 1912, also issued as Labor Bulletin No. 96; (4) Union Scale of Wages and Hours of Labor, 1913, issued as Labor Bulletin No. 97. |