CHAPTER IX. LIVING CONDITIONS OF WAGE-EARNING WOMEN IN ST. LOUIS, MO. The Missouri laws insure two inspections of industrial and mercantile houses annually, one in the fall and one in the spring. The expense for these inspections is borne by the firms inspected and is based on the number of employees in each establishment, the number being determined directly from the pay rolls. An actual count from the records of the state factory inspector for the last inspection of 1908 of the eight largest department stores in the city, and an estimate from the same records for the remaining stores, show about 5,000 women employees in the department, dry goods, suit, and 5 and 10 cent stores of the city. The Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of Missouri for 1908 gives the total number of women 14 years of age and over employed in manufacturing pursuits in St. Louis as 25,480. Of this number 4,510 were employed in the shoe factories, the dominant industry of the city so far as women employees are concerned. In the tobacco industry 1,460 women are employed, and in the breweries 641 women. These are also representative industries of St. Louis. Of the 18,869 remaining women wage-earners in miscellaneous manufacturing pursuits the greatest number in any one. industry are workers on clothing. From this total of 25,480 there have been deducted in the following table 2,317 for clerical force, which is not included in this study, making a total of 23,163 factory, mill, and miscellaneous workers. Including the department and other retail store employees there are 28,163 women wage-earners in St. Louis who were in the employments included in this investigation. From the employments mentioned above a working list of 1,223 was secured. Personal calls were made at each of the 1,223 addresses, data were secured from 1,078 girls, and 145 were found to be false addresses. Of the 1,078 women, 385 were employed in department or other retail stores, and 693 in factories, mills, and miscellaneous employments. The numbers taken from each industry and the total number employed in the industry may be seen from the following table: NUMBER OF WOMEN INCLUDED IN THIS INVESTIGATION AND NUMBER EMPLOYED IN THE SAME INDUSTRIES IN THE ENTIRE CITY, BY INDUSTRIES, ST. LOUIS, MO. a Figures computed from state factory inspector's records.. Figures are for 1907 and are taken from the Thirtieth Annual Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of Missouri, 1908. Of the 385 employed in stores 21 per cent were found to be "adrift," as the term is defined in the general introduction, or practically without homes and entirely dependent upon themselves for support. Of the women wage-earners from whom information was obtained, 693 were employed in manufacturing industries, and 21.6 per cent of these women were found to be adrift. As the shoe factories of St. Louis employ the largest number of women, the largest number from whom data were secured were employees in this industry. As the tobacco factories and breweries employ a different class of girls on the whole and are important industries as well, information was secured from 113 tobacco and 56 brewery employees. The lists of employees from the other miscellaneous industries were secured in the district canvass. Assuming 21 per cent adrift to be representative of all the women employed in stores in St. Louis, approximately 1,000 are practically without homes and dependent upon themselves for support. Likewise if the 21.6 per cent found adrift among the second group is representative of the 23,163 factory women, approximately 5,000 of these women are adrift, making a total of 6,000 of all the women wageearners of this class homeless and dependent upon their earnings for a living. The following tables summarize the important data for the women for whom information was secured, showing the number at home and the number adrift, the earnings of women at home and the financial drain upon them, as compared with the earnings and the cost of food, shelter, heat, light, and laundry for the women in the same industries |