316

THE FIVE-DAY WEEK

them by additional effort and application. Consequently,
the need for wage adjustments would seem greater in the case
of employees on hourly or weekly wage rates than in cases
where incentive wage systems are in force.
One hundred and fifty-one of the 270 establishments
studied gave information regarding the wayin which thewage
problem had been handled at the time of the shift to the fiveday
 week. Sixty-two, or 41%, reported that since no material
 change in total hours per week had been made, no adjustment
 in wages had been necessary. Of the remaining eightynine,
 ot 59%, that had reduced the working hours per week, it
was found that fifty-three companies had adjusted wage rates
to permit the earning of as high wages under the shortened
schedule as had formerly been earned under a longer one, and
twenty-eighthad made no wage adjustment to compensate for
the shorter working schedule. Three of the remaining eight
plants had made a wage adjustment that partially compensated
 for the Jost time, and five plants had increased hourly
rates but had made no change in piece rates. It appears,
therefore, that in round numbers employees in 75%, of the
companies which furnished information on this subject did
not suffer loss of wage income from the change to the fiveday
 schedule.

Quertime Arrangements
The companies found to be operating on a five-day weekly
schedule did not, as a rule, find overtime work necessary.
Some employers, whose establishments were unionized,
stated that overtime was forbidden by union regulations,
and that they could not, therefore, operate their plants overtime
 even if they wished to do so. One employer explained
that for some time there had been overproduction in his industry,
 in which a year’s requirements could easily be manufactured
 in 250 days, and that the five-day week had been
quite generally adopted as a means of spreading the year’s
production over fifty weeks. In consequence, even at times
of peak demand, overtime work was considered undesirable
as well as unnecessary.
On the other hand, seventy-nine establishments, or a little
less than one-third of the total number of plants covered, had