The type of framing had no consistent effect on the labor requirements. On the average, concrete framed schools had the highest on-site man-hour requirements, but this was not always true when data were compared on a regional basis.

Multistoried schools required slightly fewer man-hours per $1,000 of contract than the more common one-story buildings, except in the West. The multistoried schools were usually secondary schools, larger on the average, and frequently located in metropolitan areas. As such, manhour requirements were more likely to reflect the needs of these types of schools, which were generally lower than the national average.

No consistent differences in unit man-hour requirements were apparent between schools with or without basements. The exterior finish of the school also did not appear to be an important factor in the man-hour requirements of school construction.

expensive projects, which frequently included more elaborate facilities.

Requirements by Occupation. The employment o different skills on the construction site varied among projects because of several factors. Amon these are the types of construction and material used, the extent of work assigned to laborers, and the number of different types of subcontractor and trade unions in the area.

Carpenters were the most commonly employed skilled craftsmen in school construction. They represented 18.7 percent of total on-site man hours (table 3). Many of the duties they now perform are tasks which have replaced their forme work. Installation of floor tile and metal forms and other jobs not associated with lumber are frequently done by carpenters. Carpenters were therefore, found on the payrolls of many different types of special trades contractors.

Plumbers and bricklayers, the next most fre quently employed skilled workers, each repre sented slightly less than a tenth of total employ ment. Electricians, ranking fourth, accounted for just over 7 percent.

Occupation

Laborers, who were the largest single occupational classification, actually performed many

worked

worked

worked

different types of work and were reported on the payrolls of almost every type of contractor. They represented nearly one-fourth of total on-site manhours. An additional 5 percent was contributed by helpers and tenders. In the South, laborers, helpers, and tenders accounted for almost twofifths of total man-hours, while in the West they represented less than one-fourth.

On the West Coast, where there was the greatest use of wood, carpenter employment represented over one-fourth of total on-site man-hours, the largest proportion of all regions; this region used the smallest proportion of bricklayers. Conversely, the North Central region used the highest proportion of bricklayers and plumbers and the lowest share of carpenters. The occupational distribution in the Northeast was very similar to that in the North Central except for a lower proportion of laborers and a higher proportion of helpers and tenders.

Apprentices employed under formal training programs accounted for 3.7 percent of total manhours. Use of apprentices was greatest in the West and South and lowest in the Northeast.

site problems (e.g., limited accessibility), or unusual labor arrangements (e.g., travel time included at regular hourly rates).

Off-Site Employment

For each man-hour of employment on the construction site, an additional 1.5 man-hours of work were required to produce and distribute the necessary construction materials, supplies, and equipment used in construction. School construction projects, thus, gave rise to 128 man-hours of offsite employment per $1,000 of contract, compared with 84 hours on-site. The off-site employment was generated in many industries, which were classified in the categories shown in table 4.

It is also useful to divide employment requirements into those at the primary and secondary stages of processing. As seen in the table, the primary man-hour requirements, estimated at 154, arose in the activities at the site and those most directly related to the construction activity. Included in these, in addition to site employment, were off-site construction employment, work in manufacturing industries performing the "last stage of processing" for materials prior to shipment to the site, and employment in transportation,

trade, and service organizations dealing in materials used at the site.

Secondary man-hour requirements were defined as those associated with all activities less directly related to the needs at the site. Such employment, totaling 58 hours or 27 percent of total man-hours requirements, covered all parts of the economy and included additional manufacturing, transportation, mining, services, etc.

Employment in certain industries is represented in both the primary and the secondary man-hour needs because their commodities or services were used both directly in site activity and indirectly by manufacturers producing items for site activity. For example, the sand and gravel industry furnished sand and gravel directly to the construction industry and also to the ready-mixed concrete industry which sold to the construction industry.

Materials Used

Material costs represented 55.5 percent of the total construction contracts. The variations from this average were very small, not only between regions but also within regions and between elementary and secondary schools. Nearly 70 percent of the school projects studied had material costs representing from 52 to 62 percent of their total construction contracts.

One characteristic, the size of project, did appear to be related to variation in the proportion of total cost going for materials. In general, there was an inverse relation between the size of project and the proportion that materials represented of the total contract, as shown in the following tabulation. There were indications, also, that planning and other off-site activities not covered in this survey were proportionately higher on more costly projects.

1 Includes supplies and depreciated value of construction equipment.

Stone, clay, and glass products were second in general importance. Over half of this was spent on cement, concrete, and concrete products. In recent years, ready-mixed concrete has become a major item (approaching 4 percent of total contract cost). Its growing importance has been reflected in reduced use of brick and other clay products which accounted for only 2.3 percent of contract costs.

The West, the only region where lumber continued to be used in large quantities in schools, used considerably less brick and stone. In the other regions, lumber was used primarily for millwork items, which accounted for at least half of the expenditures for lumber products. Even much of the lumber previously used for concrete work has been replaced by cardboard or reusable metal forms.

-JOSEPH EPSTEIN AND JAMES F. WALKER Division of Productivity and Technological Developments

Material costs included an estimate for the rental or depreciation charge for major construction equipment used on the job, which represented a small proportion of total costs.

Each percent of construction contract represents almost $14 million of annual expenditures for construction materials at the current annual rate of school construction (e.g., the 16 percent represents $224 million of metal products).

Wages in Nonmetropolitan Areas, Southern and North Central Regions

UNDER SECTION 4(d) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Secretary of Labor is required to submit an annual report to the Congress which includes an evaluation and appraisal of the minimum wage established by the act as well as recommendations for further legislation. The Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Divisions have developed a survey program to implement that requirement. As part of this program, the Bureau conducted a survey of wages in nonmetropolitan areas of the South and North Central regions of the United States for the payroll period ending nearest October 15, 1960, which revealed that straight-time hourly earnings for nonsupervisory employees in manufacturing and in selected nonmanufacturing industries averaged $1.50 in the South and $1.85 in the North Central States.2 In the South, average earnings were $1.49 in manufacturing industries and $1.52 in the nonmanufacturing industries studied. Average earnings for the same two industry groups in the North Central region were $1.94 and $1.64, respectively. Ranked in descending order, the earnings of nonsupervisory employees in the nonmanufacturing industry divisions in both regions would be arrayed as follows: mining (except petroleum and natural gas), transportation (except railroads) and public utilities, finance, insurance and real estate, wholesale trade, and services (except nonprofit religious, charitable, educational, and humane organizations).3

Data were also tabulated separately for indusries generally subject to and those not generally subject to the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1960. In both regions, earnings were substantially higher in subject than in nonsubject ndustries. In the latter group, more than half he workers in the South and three-eighths of hose in the North Central States earned less than 1 an hour, whereas all but a few of the subject workers earned at least $1 an hour, the Federal ninimum at the time of the survey. In the South, 17 percent of the subject workers earned

6

The wage data shown in this article cover all nonsupervisory workers employed in establishments with one or more workers. Wages are expressed as average straight-time hourly earnings, excluding premium pay for overtime and for work on weekends, holidays, and late shifts. Production bonuses and wage adjustments for cost-of-living were included as part of the workers' regular pay, but such payments as Christmas or yearend bonuses were excluded.

A two-stage sampling procedure was adopted for this study. First, all nonmetropolitan areas in each of the two regions were stratified by major industry and employment, and a county or group of counties was randomly selected to represent each stratum. Thus, the nonmetropolitan county areas selected in the South and the North Central regions represented all such counties in the two regions. Second, one-fifth of the establishments employing fewer than 20 workers and all of those employing 20 or more workers in the sample

1 A list of the studies conducted since 1954 is available from the Bureau's regional offices, listed on the inside front cover of the Review, or from the Washington office.

2 The States included in the regions are listed in footnote 5, table 1, and footnote 5, table 4. For definition of nonmetropolitan areas, see footnote 3, table 1.

The results of the survey are presented in greater detail in Wages in Nonmetropolitan Areas, South and North Central Regions, October 1960, BLS Report 190.

The industries studied are defined in the 1957 edition of the Standard Industrial Classification Manual prepared by the Bureau of the Budget.

The industries included in the subject and nonsubject groups are listed in footnote 3, table 2. Since data have been grouped by industry rather than by individual establishments and workers, the possibility exists that a few workers or establishments were classified improperly as to whether they are subject to the Federal minimum.

For ease of reading in this and subsequent discussions of tabulations, the limits of the class intervals are designated as from $1 to $1.05, or between $1 and $1.05, instead of using the more precise terminology of "$1 and under $1.05."

• Included were all workers below the supervisory level, such as miners, production workers, office and clerical workers, inside salespersons, route men, repairmen, maintenance workers, installation men, cafeteria employees, custodial workers, and truckdrivers. Outside salesmen and force-account construction workers were excluded.

areas were studied. Data were obtained largely by mail questionnaire. Personal visits were generally confined to larger establishments and to a sample of all nonrespondents to the mail requests.

Southern Region

In nonmetropolitan areas of the South, straighttime earnings of nonsupervisory employees in the industries surveyed averaged $1.50 an hour in

October 1960. Although individual earning ranged from less than 40 cents to more than $ three-fourths of the workers earned from $1 to $ an hour. Earnings for the middle half of th workers ranged from $1.02 to $1.73 an hou (table 1).

In manufacturing industries, average earning were $1.49 an hour. Earnings for 18 percent o the factory workers clustered between $1 an $1.05 an hour, within 5 cents of the $1 Feders

1 Excludes premium pay for overtime and for work on weekends, holidays, and late shifts.

Excludes outside salesmen. See also text footnote 6.

3 Nonmetropolitan areas, as used in this study, refer to all counties not defined by the Bureau of the Budget as Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas. Thus, nonmetropolitan areas exclude those counties containing at least 1 central city of 50,000 population and those counties around such cities being metropolitan in character and economically integrated with the central city.

The 1957 revised edition of the Standard Industrial Classification Manual prepared by the Bureau of the Budget was used in classifying establishments by industry division and group.

Includes Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.

6 Excludes agriculture, contract construction, government, and retail trade. ? Includes manufacturing industries in addition to those shown separately. Excludes petroleum and natural gas. Excludes railroads.

10 Excludes nonprofit religious, charitable, and educational organizations. 11 Less than 0.05 percent.

NOTE: Because of rounding, sums of individual items may not equal 100.