Journal of Political Economy Vol. 23 No. 8 1915
Working Hours of Women in Chicago
Abstract
During the I9I5 session of the Illinois legislature, an effort was made to amend the so-called " ten-hour " law which, enacted in i909 and amended in 9 i , limits to ten hours a day the work of women employed in "any mechanical or mercantile establishment, or factory, or laundry, hotel or restaurant, or telegraph or telephone establishment or office thereof, or in any place of amusement, or by any express or transportation or public utility business, or by any common carrier or in any public institution, incorporated or unincorporated, in this state." By the proposed change the working day would have been limited to nine hours, and the working week to fifty hours, with specific exception permitting a fifty-fourhour week in mercantile establishments. Such a shortening of working hours would have been quite in conformity with the recent legislative policy of other states and with the practice of a considerable proportion of employers in the state of Illinois. Under the existing Illinois law, while the working day is limited to ten hours, there is no restriction of the number of hours per week, and women may, therefore, if the employers demand it, legally work seventy hours a week. In view of generally accepted standards for women's employment such a possibility is of course an anachronism, especially unsatisfactory in Illinois, which ranks as the third manufacturing state in the Union. Thirty-two states and the District of Columbia now limit the working week to sixty hours or less; two have a sixty-three-hour week; four are in the same class with Illinois; and only nine have failed to enact legislation on the subject. Moreover, the ten-hour day is rapidly being reduced. An eight-hour day has been established in five states, Arizona, California, Colorado, Washington, and Wyoming, and in the District of Columbia. Six others, Oregon, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, and Utah, have established nine-hour schedules. Idaho and Montana also have a nine-hour day, without further restriction of the number of hours per week. It is true that in few states are the limitations at present so general in scope as in Illinois;
- DOI
- 10.1086/252710
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 822-831
- Language
- en
- Sources
- semanticscholar openalex crossref