Gender and the role of unions: earnings differentials among Swedish tobacco
workers in 1898
Maria Stanfors & Tobias Karlsson
Department of Economic History
Lund University, Sweden
[email protected]
[email protected]
Abstract
In this paper we address the issue of the role of unions and the way union membership
affected earnings differentials in the Swedish tobacco industry in 1898. We analyze a dataset
covering 3202 tobacco workers, 1047 men and 2155 women, of which 1161 were union
members. Because the tobacco industry at the time was female dominated, women made up
more than 50 per cent of the union members. Our results show that men were more likely to
become union members, but mainly the same factors were of importance as determinants of
union status for both men and women. Interesting gender differences to note were the fact that
skill and experience were more important determinants for women than for men and that for
women, but not for men, having breadwinning responsibilities were positively associated with
union membership. Union membership affected the earnings of different categories of tobacco
workers in that the average weekly income of unionized workers exceeded those of their nonunion co-workers. Men benefited significantly more than women from being union members
and when it comes to different skills, more skilled workers benefited significantly more than
less skilled workers. Earnings differentials were, however, to a very high degree affected by
other factors than unionism and gender was one of the most significant factors at work in the
late nineteenth tobacco industry. Our results show that unions raised the earnings of the
already well-paid, but, at the same time, equalized earnings within categories such as gender,
skill level and occupational specialty. Becoming a union member was thus a rational decision
of both men and women in order to improve individual earnings and so it was for workers of
different skill levels.
Paper for session “All work and no play?” at the Social Science History Association Annual
Meeting, Miami, October 23–26, 2008.
Introduction
Gender differentials regarding work and wages are issues that attract a lot of attention today.
Sweden is often seen as an example where the aggregate gender wage gap has narrowed
substantially over time. Among the factors that have contributed to this equalization are
improvements in women’s human capital, the abolishment of formal discrimination and bars,
a high demand for labor, but also the role of unions are, by many, seen to have been
important. Although economic historians have contributed to an improved understanding of
the gradual closing of the different gender gaps in economic status, we know much more
about the determinants thereof in present time than in the past mainly due to the lack of
historical micro-level data. There are, however, some unexploited sources that can help
improve our knowledge on the subject matter, for example, large-scale statistical surveys
which were undertaken in many countries. In this paper, we use an extensive data set based on
an investigation of the Swedish tobacco industry in 1898, which includes information on job
characteristics as well as individual-specific background variables very similar to those made
use of in present-day surveys.
We look into the factors that shaped labor relations and earnings differentials between men
and women working in the Swedish tobacco industry in 1898 and direct particular interest to
the role of unions and the way union membership affected men’s and women’s wages and
working conditions. Specifically we ask: Who became a union member? How can we explain
the observed differences in unionization between men and women? What were the earnings
effects of unionization?
There are very few similar studies of unionization and the impacts of unions (i.e. Dillon &
Gang, 1987; Eichengreen, 1987; Hatton, Boyer & Bailey, 1994; Maddox & Eichengreen,
1989). Even less interest has been devoted to the gender dimension hereof. In contrast to
previous studies, we can provide new evidence on the issue by making use of individual-level
data from one industry in which men and women worked side by side and actually competed
for the same jobs. There was a clear gender division of labor in late nineteenth-century
Swedish tobacco industry, but it was less pronounced than it previously had been. Some lowskilled occupations were almost exclusively female but women were not excluded from highskilled occupations. Tobacco workers began to unionize relatively early; as the first local
trade union was formed in 1883 and a national organization was created six years later. As
2
such it is of particular interest for an investigation of gender-specific aspects of union
membership.
The paper is organized as follows: first, we discuss previous research and explore some
theoretical considerations about the role of unions and union membership in late-nineteenth
century Sweden. Second, the Swedish tobacco industry in 1898 is characterized when it
comes to production, gender, and skill requirements. Thereafter, the data material is described
and variables as well as methodological considerations are discussed. We put forward a
number of hypotheses regarding the determinants of union membership as well as on the
union effects of earnings. In the results section, we estimate a number of regressions and
present the empirical results. The paper ends with a summary discussion on the role of gender
and unions in late-nineteenth century tobacco industry in Sweden.
Unions and union membership
Previous research
The majority of histories of nineteenth century unionism have traditionally analyzed it in
terms of ideologies, politics and individual personalities.1 To a large extent, Swedish
historians have followed the tradition of “old labor history” and studied labor philosophy,
organizational structure and membership composition of different unions (e.g., Johansson,
1990; Magnusson, 1987; Sund, 1987; Åmark, 1986). Rarely, these studies have investigated
the impact of unionism on earnings, hours, and working conditions, which, in contrast, has
been the major contribution of the “new labor history” (Brody, 1979). Studies following this
tradition, have found that although the emphasis of late nineteenth-century unions was on
“equal rights”, they mainly served the interests of skilled workers in the sense that, if
unionism conferred economic benefits, these were mainly enjoyed by the workers’ elite.
These conclusions have, however, not often been supported by quantitative evidence and
proper statistical analysis.
There are few investigations of nineteenth-century unionism that apply modern labor
economic theory to statistical analysis, employing data sets that make it possible to analyze
the determinants of union membership and the impact of unions on earnings, hours and
tenure, controlling for characteristics if the individual and the industry other than union status
1
This is the case in Sweden as well as internationally. See Maddox & Eichengreen (1987) for a review of
American “old labor history”.
3
(e.g., Dillon & Gang, 1987; Eichengreen, 1987; Gang, 1987; Hatton, Boyer & Bailey, 1994;
Maddox & Eichengreen, 1989). With the exception of a study of the shoe industry in New
England (Maddow & Eichengreen, 1989), the above mentioned studies only investigate male
workers, which mean that we know very little about women and unions and the way that
union membership affected women workers, their earnings and working conditions.
Moreover, a common data source for the above mentioned studies is statewide surveys of
wage earners from all sorts of economic sectors and industries with little information on
industry, workplace and individual. This allows for limited opportunity to control for
characteristics of the industry, job and characteristics of the individual, which might be
correlated with union membership as well as with earnings.2 One response to this problem is
to study a particular industry and that is the approach taken in this paper. Our data material
includes both men and women, which enables us to give a more realistic picture of late
nineteenth-century labor relations. It also gives us an opportunity to shed further light on the
issue of unions and gender.
Theoretical considerations
A trade union or a labor union is an organization of workers who have joined together to
achieve common goals in key areas such as wages, hours, and working conditions. The classic
definition of a trade union, formulated by Sidney and Beatrice Webb in 1894 (page 1) is “a
continuous association of wage earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the
conditions of their working lives”. A neo-classical economist with rationality of decisionmaking as an important assumption would see the trade union as a cartel of labor intended to
maximize the benefits of its members. An intermediate view would recognize that men and
women join together in trade unions because of imperfections in the labor market (Phelps
Brown, 1989).
The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of the union
members and negotiates labor contracts with employers.3 This may include the negotiation of
wages, work rules, complaint procedures, rules governing hiring, firing and promotion of
workers, benefits, workplace safety and policies. The agreements negotiated by the union
leaders are binding on the rank and file members and the employer and in some, but not all,
2
If, for example, industry-specific characteristics are incompletely controlled for, the concentration of unionists
in high-wage, skilled jobs and industries may generate conclusions that unionism lead to earnings differentials
that in fact were due to the characteristics of members’ industries and/of their jobs.
4
cases on other non-member workers. The union may comprise individual workers,
professionals, past workers, or the unemployed. It may also comprise different kinds of
workers, both blue-collar and white-collar, in one and the same industry or simply organize
workers in the same occupation. Since the most common purpose of union activity is to
maintain or improve working conditions, the different interests of different groups of workers
may lead to internal conflict as well as to an insider-outsider dilemma.
Historically, trade unions have developed into a number of forms, influenced by differing
political and economic regimes.4 The trade union, as we know it, can be traced to the rapid
expansion of industrial society when the urban industrial factory workforce increased in large
numbers and groups like women, children, and previously rural workers filled new economic
roles alongside with male workers. Initially, this led to spontaneous yet short-lived
organizations as reactions to problems and unfair treatment of workers, but later it would be
an important arena for the development of trade unions. Early on, trade union activities
focused on the improvement of working conditions and the provision of benefits to insure
members against unemployment, ill health, and old age.5 Strikes or the resistance to lockouts
became important weapons in achieving goals and safeguarding member interests. However,
collective bargaining in which the unions negotiate with employers over wages and working
conditions became a central activity. Moreover, more modern trade unions also serve as
important political lobbyists, not least in Sweden and the United Kingdom.
The increasing role of unions and the increase in union members over time, can be explained
in economic terms by a model of the demand for and supply of union activity (Ashenfelter &
Pencavel, 1969; Pencavel, 1971). On the demand side, employees’ desire to be union
members will be a function of the price of the union membership, and, other things equal, the
higher the price, the lower the fraction of employees that will want to be union members. On
the supply side, since it is costly to undertake union activities and for example represent
3
Cf. monopoly-union and efficient-contracts models in any standard book of labor economics.
Sometimes, trade unions are seen as successors to the guilds of medieval Europe, though the relationship
between the two is disputed. Whereas medieval guilds existed to protect and enhance their members’ livelihoods
through controlling the instructional capital of artisanship and the progression of members from apprentice to
craftsman, and eventually to master of their craft, a labor union might include workers from one trade or craft, or
might combine several or all the workers in one company or industry (see for example Leeson, 1971). Another
view puts forward that trade unions are part of a broader social movement at the same time.
5
Today, these functions have in many countries been taken over by the state, but there are nevertheless other
benefits of trade union membership.
4
5
workers in collective bargaining negotiations, it is reasonable to conclude that the willingness
of unions to supply their services is an upward-sloping function of the price of union
membership. Change over time therefore can be explained by workers’ perceptions of
relatively lower price of becoming union members and of higher net gains from union
membership. But not only economic factors play a role, tastes are also important and changes
in social attitudes towards organization may affect individuals positively in their decision on
becoming union members. On the supply side, anything that changes the costs of union
organizing activities will affect the supply curve.
Factors that often are discussed when it comes to increasing or decreasing union membership
are: the degree of employer resistance and general union-friendly climate since the effects
hereof are obvious. The competitive pressure in the economy is also a factor to consider as
increased competition in product markets increases the price elasticities of product demand
and hence the wage elasticities of labor demand.6 If union members’ wages are sticky,
employment will fall and workers may see it as less rewarding to be union members or the
industries, facing competitive pressure, may attract non-unionized workers to a higher degree
than other industries. We know that some industries tend to be unionized to a higher degree
than others and therefore an industrial shift in employment may affect union membership
rates. There may not only be industrial differences in attitudes toward unions and the benefits
of collective action but also regional differences. Hence, if there is a regional shift in
employment, union strength may be affected. Union strength is also affected by the size of
establishment. The demand for unionization is thought to be lower for employees who work
in small firms, because they often feel less alienated from their supervisors. At the same time,
it is more costly to organize workers spread over many firms than it is to organize many
workers at one plant. These factors tend to suggest that the extent of unionization will be
affected by a shift in industrial distribution of employment. Finally, union membership is
affected by demographic factors and changes in the workforce composition with respect to
gender and age since different demographic groups, notably women and young people in
relation to men and older workers, in certain periods of time, have proven to differ
systematically when it comes to union membership.
Unions in the Swedish tobacco industry
6
This section draws heavily on standard economic reasoning on what unions do and what affects union
membership, notably Freeman & Medoff, 1984.
6
Unionization among tobacco workers began relatively early.7 The first local trade union was
formed in 1883 and a national organization – The Scandinavian Tobacco Workers’ Union –
was created six years later. The Tobacco Workers’ Union was open for all categories of
workers and at its constituting congress the delegates supported, without reservations, a
statement that the union should strive to attain equal wages for men and women (Lindbom &
Kuhm, 1940:68).8 In 1898, when the investigation of the Swedish tobacco industry was
undertaken, the union had been active for almost ten years and organized slightly less than a
third of all workers in the industry. As in many other industries at the time, the union density
was higher among men than among women. However, due to the higher share of women in
the industry, the gender composition of the union’s members was fairly even. According to
Rossland (1995:86), female workers made a relatively good showing in the union.9 Still, with
regard to their share of the labor force, women were underrepresented in the leading functions
of the union and this continued well into the twentieth century although the share of men in
the industry decreased (Karlsson, 2006).
From our sample of 3202 individuals (i.e., 1047 men and 2155 women) we find that men were
to much larger extent union members than women. Whereas more than every second man was
a union member, only 28 per cent of the women were unionized. On the other hand, as
women formed the majority of tobacco workers, they made up more than 50 per cent of the
union members in 1898. Cigar makers were among the first to organize and the overwhelming
majority (94 per cent) of this group of workers were union members in 1898. Among the cigar
makers who belonged to the union, men and women made up just about equal halves.
Cigarmaking was a relatively skilled job. The higher degree of unionization among these
workers is reflected by the different degrees of unionization by skill level. 91 per cent of the
union members could either be labeled semi-skilled or skilled. As women in general had
lower skill levels than men, the union comprised a relatively larger share of unskilled women.
7
In the US, the Cigarmakers Union made history by becoming the first national union to allow women to
become members on an equal basis with men in 1876. This event took place after much debate. A few years
later, the Cigarmakers developed a new strategy with strong demands for protective labor legislation.
8
The entrance of women to the tobacco industry in the latter part of the nineteenth century had not taken place
without frictions. There is at least one example of how male workers went on strike when employers hired
female workers and the first local branch of the union did not allow female members (Karlsson, 2005:8).
Eventually, the women’s presence in the industry became so strong that they could not be ignored or directly
opposed by the early trade unionists.
9
Women were represented in the national board of the union as well as at its congresses. At the constituting
meeting of the Social Democratic party in 1898 the Stockholm section of the Tobacco Workers’ Union had a
female representative and in 1904 a woman was appointed to chairwoman of the same section.
7
The union also comprised a relatively larger group of workers employed in larger firms and
relatively more workers, especially female, working in big cities than elsewhere.
Table 1 about here
Some characteristics of the tobacco industry in late nineteenth-century Sweden
The production process
The tobacco industry was in nineteenth century Sweden referring to five distinct branches of
production: cigars10, cigarettes, smoke tobacco, roll tobacco and snuff. The different branches
had the raw material in common but differed considerably with regard to production processes
and skill requirements. Each branch had its own occupations and workers could not easily
move between productions of one tobacco good to another (Elmquist, 1899:61).
With regard to employment, cigar production was the most important branch. The process of
producing cigars could be divided into three stages: preparation work, cigar rolling, and
sorting and packaging. Preparation work involved handling of the raw tobacco, fermentation,
moistening and finally the removal of stems from the leaves. When the preparation was
finished, the actual manufacturing process began. This could either take place by hand or with
the help of a wooden mould. Finally, the cigars were sorted according to quality, packed into
boxes and placed on frames in a drying room.
The degree of mechanization in Swedish cigar production in the late 19th century appears to
have been relatively low, at least if compared with the United Kingdom (Cox, 2003:124).
Although few machines were used, cigar production could hardly be described as a traditional
handicraft as it was performed in factories and characterized by a pronounced division of
labor. Within the preparation process a number of distinct occupations were employed – such
as tobacco sorters, tobacco moisteners and strippers. The making of cigars could be performed
by one person or be divided between a bunch maker and an over-roller. Sorting and packaging
were sometimes performed by two persons holding different occupations but often by one
person and the same could be said when it comes to the making and labeling of cigar boxes
(Elmquist, 1899:64).
10
It should be noted that cigar-cigarettes in the late nineteenth century was regarded as a form of cigar. Later the
distinction between cigars and cigar-cigarettes became more pronounced.
8
The various occupations differed with respect to skill requirements. Preparation of raw
tobacco was considered to require ‘only insignificant skills’ whereas the work performed by
cigar makers and sorters were considered to be more difficult. Cigar makers needed
considerable dexterity whereas the sorters had to posses an ability to distinguish between
numerous color shades and to grade cigars according to quality. Traditionally, the training
period for cigar makers and sorters lasted between two to four years but the rapid expansion
of cigar production had made the apprentice institution less rigid, particularly at newly
founded factories (Elmquist, 1899:96–98). A factor that made it possible to cut training
periods possible was the introduction of moulds for making cigars (Oakeshott, 1900:565). But
another factor was increased division of labor, for example represented by the existence of
semi-skilled bunch makers.
The second most important branch with regard to employment was the production of roll
tobacco. The preparation process in this branch included the addition of various kinds of
substances for improving taste and smell. Most often the process continued with spinning the
tobacco leaves with the help of spinning-wheels. After spinning, the tobacco was boiled,
pressed and wrapped. Tobacco spinning was considered to be relatively simple and the
spinner had one or two assistants. Sometimes the spinner also worked together with a roller.
The production of smoke tobacco and cigarettes shared some similarities with roll tobacco
production in the preparation phase but the addition of substances was somewhat simpler than
when producing roll tobacco. Preparation was followed by heating and drying. Thereafter, the
leaves were cut with special cutting machines. Rolled in thin paper, some of the finelychopped tobacco was sold as cigarettes. According to a contemporary observer, the work of a
cigarette maker appeared to be ‘reasonably simple’ and not requiring any higher degree of
skill and he added that the income of a cigarette worker to a considerable degree was
depending on ‘handiness’ and ‘swiftness’ (Elmquist, 1899:65). The huge part of the chopped
tobacco was however pressed into moulds, wrapped and sold to pipe smokers. This process
was according to the same observer of ‘little complexity’ although it could take considerable
time for a worker to acquire the skills required for speedy work (Elmquist, 1899:66).
Snuff was the least important branch with regard to employment and also the branch with
least similarities with the other branches if production processes are considered. After adding
sauces – prepared according to secret recipes, often under the supervision of the factory owner
9
himself - the tobacco was heated, which could be accomplished in different ways. In some
cases, the tobacco was pulverized before heating, in other cases, the whole leaves were
heated, which could take several months. Thereafter the tobacco was grinded and put in
wooden boxes. Work in snuff production was considered to be relatively heavy and the
division of labor was less pronounced than in other areas of the tobacco industry.
Gender in the workplace
The workforce in the Swedish tobacco industry was early on male dominated. In the era of
mercantilism it was even prescribed that tobacco manufacturers were only allowed to hire
women if no male workers were available. With the introduction and growth of cigar
production in the mid-nineteenth century, women entered the industry (Elmquist, 1899;
Lindbom & Kuhm, 1940:38; Rossland, 1995:79). The feminization of cigar production was,
however, not a unique Swedish phenomenon as it was also seen in other countries (Abbott,
1907; Gálvez Muñoz, 2006). In 1898, 63 per cent of the workers were women and 37 percent
men, although the gender composition differed between branches (see Table 2). For example,
in cigar production, the share of female workers was 67 per cent and cigarette-making was a
female-dominated branch with 96 per cent females. In roll tobacco production, the gender
composition of the workforce was rather even whereas snuff production was male dominated,
employing only a handful of women.11
Table 2 about here
A complicating issue when discussing gender differences is that even though men and women
are found in the same industries and branches they seldom work side-by-side with the same
tasks. The difficulty of making ‘equal work’ comparisons due to the fact that occupations
rarely contained both sexes was noted already in the late 19th century. According to the British
economist and social reformer Sidney Webb, this was the case with cigar making, where
women usually worked with ‘an inferior kind of cigar’ (Webb, 1891:639). However, Webb
added: the difference between the grades appears to an outsider to be quite unconnected with
any special fitness or ability and so close […] is the similarity in the tasks that it is possible
that there is sometimes no essential difference between them (Webb, 1891:639). Clara Collet,
11
The category other in Table 1 is also highly male-dominated. This category consists of people who were
employed in the tobacco industry but who were not directly involved with the production process. Instead they
worked as for example carpenters and care-takers.
10
another contemporary British observer, however, also reports that she found male and female
cigar makers in a Leeds factory doing the same kind of work (Collet, 1891:473).
Although, there was a clear gender division of labor in late nineteenth-century Swedish
tobacco industry, it was less pronounced than it previously had been and as it later would
become. Some low-skilled occupations were almost exclusively female but women were not
excluded from high-skilled occupations (Lindbom & Kuhm, 1940:38). Table 3 displays the
composition of the workforce in the tobacco industry with respect to skill-level and gender in
1898. We see that relatively few men were found in low-skilled occupations such as
preparation workers or semi-skilled bunch makers whereas women were over-represented in
the lower skill segment of the industry. There was, however, an even distribution of men and
women among the skilled and women actually outnumbered men in the skilled categories
cigar makers and sorters/packers. Some women had made it to the top of the occupational
ladder although their advancement was less common than among men, who dominated the
category foremen.
Table 3 about here
Despite clear traces of a gender division of labor, cigar making in the late nineteenth century
may be viewed as an industry where men and women competed for the same jobs. As such it
is a suitable context for an investigation of union membership and gender-specific effects
hereof.
Data and method
Data
In this paper we make use of a rich data material from a nation-wide survey of 4380 tobacco
workers, 1621 males and 2759 females, employed at 104 factories. In the late nineteenth
century, the Swedish government began to map out working conditions in different sectors of
the economy. Similar investigations had already been undertaken elsewhere in Europe and in
North America. One of the first industries to be chosen for one of these large-scale statistical
surveys was the tobacco industry.12 The survey was conducted by the Swedish Board of
12
There were several motivations why the tobacco industry was chosen. First, this industry was known for its
conflicts between workers and employers. Second, the tobacco industry had a considerable share of female and
child workers. Third, a previous public inquiry on the issue of labour insurances had showed that the work
11
Commerce in the year 1898. The investigation was carried out by statistician Henning
Elmquist with the help of three traveling agents, of which one, Anna Söderberg, was
responsible for the interview of female workers. Elmquist and the agents were equipped with
two sets of questions.13 The first was directed towards the employers who were asked
questions about the number of employees, the use of machinery, working hours, over-time
work, employment contracts and regulations, fringe benefits, experiences of strikes and lockouts. The employers were also asked to provide information on the income of all workers
employed in 1897. The second set of questions was directed towards the workers who were
asked to provide personal information such as birth date, birth location, parents’ occupation,
spouse’s occupation, number of children, present occupation, year when entering the branch,
year when entering present occupation, year when employment at the present factory began,
weekly income, wage form (piece rates or time wage), health status, previous treatment for
illness, membership in social security fund, membership in trade union and experiences of
strikes and lock-outs, etc. The ambition was to collect data from all workers employed at the
point in time when the agents visited the factory. In total, the agents managed to collect
answers from 4380 tobacco workers, a number which is very close to the one reported by the
employers to the official industrial statistics that year.
In addition to the pre-printed questionnaires, the agents were given instructions to take notes
on a number of other aspects. Factory owners or managers were asked about how strictly
working hours were regulated, how production was organized, whether unions were allowed
and whether they considered men or women to be the best workers. Workers, on the other
hand, were to be asked about working hours, training period, piece rates, chronic diseases or
physical disabilities, ‘special remarks or wishes’. Female workers were also to be asked about
child births (how long before delivery they had worked and how long after they had stayed
home and whether there was any support for mothers). Furthermore, at each factory, a number
of workers were picked to answer a more extensive set of control questions. These included
some of the questions posed to the factory owners about the organization of production.14
environment in the tobacco industry was particularly unhealthy. Finally, the geographical location of the industry
– with its relative concentration to the three largest cities of the country – was thought to simplify the realization
of the survey. Other early surveys were made on bakeries and the mechanical industry.
13
There was also a third and a fourth sets of questions concerning working conditions and arrangements for the
workers welfare.
14
The instructions were fairly well followed by the traveling agents but basically ignored by the head of the
investigation, Henning Elmquist. This implies that there is individual information on working times from most of
the female workers but only from a minor part of the male workers. In this paper it has therefore been necessary
to use the normal working hours states by the employers, although it should be acknowledged that working times
12
Sample
We restrict our analysis of gender, union membership, and earnings effects thereof to workers
age 15 and over.15 Child labourers have been excluded since they were not part of the regular
workforce and we have reason to believe that they did not work full days. It should be noted
that, although many children had been employed in the Swedish tobacco industry, their share
had decreased substantially in the last decades of the nineteenth century and by the time of
Elmquist’s investigation their number amounted to slightly less than five per cent of the
workforce (cf. Olsson, 1980). In some cases, we do not have full information on all variables
and so the data set that we analyze covers 3202 tobacco workers, of which 1047 are men and
2155 are women.
Variables
The data material is rich on information both when it comes to individual and workplace
characteristics. Descriptive statistics on many of the variables included in our models are
found in Table 4.
Table 4 about here
In order to investigate who became a union member, and the determinants of union
membership, as well as to take account of the potential effects of unionization on earnings, we
have constructed a dummy variable indicating whether a worker was a union member or not.
The variable earnings (i.e. the natural logarithm of weekly income) is derived from the
workers’ own statements, which may be seen as the income of a normal working week or the
self-estimated earning capacity.16 Furthermore, earnings refer, in this paper, to wage incomes
and do not include fringe benefits. However, in the Swedish tobacco industry of 1898,
benefits were not important.
in the tobacco industry often was quite flexible. Elmquist was not only untidy with regard to working hours but
also with the distinction between cigar makers working manually and those using moulds, a distinction that often
was made by Söderberg when interrogating female workers. This could be a potential problem when analyzing
income differences since hand work was considered to be more difficult and was associated with higher pay
(Oakeshott, 1900:565; Burchardt, 1995:55, 91).
15
After restricting the sample with respect to age, our sample consists of 3865 individuals, 1442 men and 2423
women.
13
Sex is a vital variable as we are interested in gender differences and measuring the cost of
being female, while controlling for a number of explanatory variables. In virtually all
societies, work is highly associated with gender and the work of women has in general been
less well paid than that of men. One of the reasons for the lower wages of women is their,
historically established, lower representation in unions. As mentioned above, sex differences
also existed in the Swedish tobacco industry.
Age is a continuous variable measured as age in years from stated year of birth to 1898.
Empirical evidence suggests that young people may be less inclined to become a union
member and that tenure and a sense of collegiality is important for collective actions and this
may increase with age and time on the job. Empirical evidence also suggest that the
importance of a worker’s age on earnings is highly significant. Since most workers entered
the tobacco industry in their teens, age reflects physical maturity as well as experience of
tobacco work. However, as workers aged in the tobacco industry their fingers got stiff and
they were no longer able to keep the same pace as young workers. To capture this negative
age effect together with other age effects, we also include age squared in our regressions.
With some exceptions, work in the tobacco industry by the late nineteenth century was not
particularly physically demanding. Tobacco work was rather considered as a trade where also
individuals with physical disabilities could compete (Fogelström, 1965:204). However,
tobacco work, in this era, was associated with different kinds of diseases in the respiratory
organs. In the survey of 1898, the workers were asked about their health status, given the four
response alternatives: ‘good’, ‘relatively good’, ‘weak’ and ‘bad’. Few answered that they felt
weak or bad, and we have therefore constructed a dummy variable that indicates whether the
health status of a worker was good or not. In our sample, the self-reported health status is in
general worse among women than among men. Health status is, to a certain extent, also
related to age. There are, to our knowledge, no studies exploring health status as a
determinant of union membership, even as a control variable, among factory workers. Our
expectations are somewhat mixed since we, on the one hand, expect those with some health
problems to be more interested in union representation than those in good health, whereas, on
the other hand, those in good health being far more likely to be successful workers belonging
to the groups which formed the early unions.
16
When income is reported as an interval, we have used the median value.
14
For all the questions that we are interested in finding an answer to, it is of utmost importance
to recognize that, in late nineteenth-century Sweden, the male breadwinner norm was strong
both as an organizing principle in the production process and as a rationale for different
institutional arrangements. The presence of dependent children at home (kids at home) was
for many women a hindrance to active participation in productive work whereas for men, it
was a reason to work more and harder and keep a regular job in order to provide for the
family. For men, a high dependency burden is thus thought to be positively related to union
membership as well as to earnings. For women, the effect may be offset by the increased
amount of household work and caring activities associated with having children since mothers
at the turn of the century were not able to work as many hours as single women. Moreover,
there were social norms that did not condone the active labor force participation of married
women and mothers. In our regressions, we use a dummy variable that indicates whether a
worker has one or more children at home.
Civil status was another dimension of the male breadwinner norm. The expectation on civil
status is similar and also related to that of having dependent children at home. Being married
is expected to have a positive effect on male earnings. Although hard to live up to in practice,
the male breadwinner ideal prescribed that the husband should earn enough so the wife could
stay at home and be a full-time homemaker. We know, however, that many women at the time
for our investigation, not only put in several work hours as they cared for their family and
home, but that they also took on a considerable amount of work, although this was not
recorded in labor statistics in the same way as was the work of single women and men (see
e.g. Stanfors, 2003). According to contemporary norms and ideals, being married not only
commanded men to provide for their wife and family but also to keep their job and not to go
drinking and neglect work – a behavior that, indeed, was common in the tobacco industry of
the nineteenth century. Elmquist (1899:123) reports that both married and previously married
men and women had higher annual incomes, a finding he attributed to the stronger incentives
to work regularly and to attain high incomes for married workers of both sexes. Other
contemporary observers report a negative influence of being married on the income of female
workers, a phenomenon that reflects that the presence of a (working) husband may have made
it possible for married women to work less than otherwise would have been the case if they
were single. Civil status is a dummy variable that includes single, unmarried people, those
15
who were married at the time for the investigation and previously married. The third category
mainly consists of widows/widowers but there are also some cases of divorcees.
The effect of career interruptions is often discussed in the literature on the gender wage gap,
but it may also prove important when investigation union membership since those with career
interruptions may be less attached to the workplace, have shorter tenure and therefore be less
inclined to become a union member. In the tobacco survey, workers whose career
interruptions lasted longer than five months have been marked with a dummy.17
It is also important to consider what branch and what kind of production the worker in
question is involved in. As mentioned above, the tobacco industry in 1898 consisted of four
distinct branches of production of which cigar making stood out. In our analysis, we have
included a dummy variable that indicate whether a worker was employed in cigar production
or in another branch of production. We expect being employed in cigar making to have
positive effects on union membership as well as on earnings since this was the core group of
workers, rather skilled, and typically those involved in early union activities. Moreover,
employers would have had to pay higher wages in this expanding and branch of the industry.
Cigar making was also more of a craftsmanship than some of the other branches.
As there were four branches of tobacco production, each with its distinct division of labor, a
large number of different occupations (i.e. job titles) were reported in the survey. In order to
deal with this complicated occupational structure we have considered the different tasks that
workers in different occupations were involved in as well as the skill requirements of different
occupations. On the basis of this information, we have constructed a dummy variable that
consists of four categories on the basis of skill level. The first group is labeled ‘unskilled’ and
includes workers in occupations that did not require any formal training periods. The second
group is called ‘semi-skilled’. In this group, we find workers in occupations that required
some formal training, such as bunch makers, cigarette makers and machine workers. The third
group is the ‘skilled’ were training periods were two years or longer. In this group we find
cigar makers, sorters and tobacco spinners. The fourth group, ‘foremen’, is workers whose job
title indicates that they have certain responsibilities. They were often recruited from a pool of
skilled workers. Male workers were over-represented among the skilled and among foremen.
17
Workers who reported career interruptions without specifying how long it lasted have been dropped from the
dataset.
16
However, in comparison with other industries at the same point in time, there were also many
skilled women in the tobacco industry, which makes the industry somewhat particular in a
wider contemporary context. We expect skill-level to be positively associated with both union
membership and earnings, however with the group ‘foremen’ as an exception with respect to
union membership since they were likely in a situation where their loyalty primarily was with
the employer instead of the co-workers.
Since several tasks in the tobacco industry were learnt on the job and the semi-skilled and
skilled positions required formal training periods, many workers started their careers as
apprentices. One aspect of trade unions as monopolies/cartels is that craft unions have limited
the numbers of apprentices, thereby restricting supply of labor. This could also have involved
recruitment campaigns of new apprentices and thus we expect being an apprentice to be
positively associated with union membership. Generally, workers in training were paid by the
piece, but at a lower rate than ordinary workers. Thus, the effect of the dummy variable
indicating being an apprentice on earnings is expected to be negative.
The questions posed to the tobacco workers make it possible for us to distinguish between
three different kinds of experience, namely years spent in the tobacco industry, years spent in
the present occupational specialty and years spent with present employer. Tenure and job
stability is important for becoming a union member. As unions raise wages and improve
working conditions, firms with collective agreements see lower quit rates. Once seniority
rules are established, longer employed workers preserve their advantages by not quitting and
they avoid all but the deepest layoffs. Workers are more likely to join a union when they feel
that their working conditions and workmates are worth supporting and these attitudes often
develop as employment durations lengthen. It is important to distinguish between different
kinds of experiences since they may render the workers different amounts of return (cf.
Eichengreen, 1984). The above-mentioned different kinds of experience are also correlated
with age in different ways (cf. Aldrich & Abelda, 1980). In this paper we use the measures of
experience in the occupational specialty, which represents the importance of job-specific
experience. Although many of the skills needed by tobacco workers certainly were of jobspecific nature there were probably also idiosyncratic skills that only could be used in a
particular factory. There is, for example, a drastic story about a female cigar maker in
Stockholm whose hands took the shape of a special cigar and who therefore was very
17
reluctant to shift to another task (Fogelström, 1965:204) and similar stories are told in other
contexts (cf. Oakeshott, 1900:567).
About two thirds of the workers in the tobacco industry were paid by the piece, with the rest
being paid on an hourly basis. Elmquist (1899:126) reports that the wage form generally did
not affect earnings but the fact that both piece rates and time wages were applied in the
industry is interesting. Women benefited from being paid by the piece because with time
wages, employers or male co-workers could argue that there be different wage scales for men
and women, for example due to perceived differences in physical capacity and regularity in
work. With piece rates, this kind of argument was less likely to appear since each and every
individual worker had to prove himself/herself. When examining collective agreements from
the early twentieth century tobacco industry, we see that different hourly wages were
sometimes applied for men and women whereas the piece rates always were the same.
However, the absence of different piece rates does not exclude wage discrimination according
to sex. In the tobacco industry piece rates were usually related to the sales price of the product
and the quality of the raw material and not necessarily to the amount of work or degree of
difficulty so the assignment of different tasks could affect wage form, piece rate and weekly
earnings. Therefore, we consider what wage form the worker was being paid and expect piece
rates to have a positive, although not necessarily straightforward, effect on earnings. Wage
form is a dummy variable indicating whether the worker was paid by the piece or not.
All else equal, workers identity, labor force attachment, and the earnings of an individual are
not only a function of wage or piece rate but also a function of time. The more hours spent at
work, the higher the earnings. In this paper, we use a measure of the normal weekly working
hours that was reported by the employers. This is not an all ideal measure since few
employers, at the time when the investigation was undertaken, applied strict working hours
and workers had a certain, rather modern-standard, flexibility to come and go as they pleased.
However, the earnings measure that we use is the reported earnings of a normal working week
and therefore the deficiency of the work hours measure is not severe and definitely not in
comparison to many other studies that completely lack information of work hours.18 We
expect work hours to be positively associated with both union membership and earnings.
18
For future research, it would be possible to analyze information on individual working hours that exists for
female workers in the primary material from Elmquist’s investigation. Another possibility is to take a closer look
at the incomes of workers employed at companies where strict working hours were applied.
18
Both the demand for unionization and the supply of union activity are thought to be lower for
employees in small firms. With respect to earnings effects, empirical studies of wages have
shown that workers in big firms are better off than others (Brown & Medoff, 1989; Lester,
1967; Masters, 1969; Mellow, 1982; Reilly, 1995). Several explanations for this phenomenon
have been offered (for an overview, see Reilly 1995:3–4). Some argue that big firms generally
are more capital intensive and therefore demand labor of a higher quality that need to be paid
better wages, whereas others have proposed explanations in which information asymmetries
and uncertainty of workers’ true capabilities are central when it comes to wage setting. In this
study, we use a variable that measures establishment or firm size. Firm size is a dummy
grouped into three categories that range from 1–49 workers, 50–99 workers, to 100 or more
workers. It is worth noting that, in our sample, women are more often found to work in big
factories whereas men are overrepresented in small workshops.
Manufacturing of tobacco goods was in late nineteenth-century Sweden an urban based
industry. The major part of the workforce was concentrated to the three big cities Stockholm,
Göteborg and Malmö. Some small-scale rural production was found in the southernmost
landscape Scania. In order to take into account the possible influence of local labor market
conditions on wages, we have constructed a dummy variable indicating whether a worker is
employed in one of the three big cities or not. This variable is called workplace location.
The workers were also asked whether they were members of various support funds. This
information is also of interest for our purpose, because membership status may have been
related to unobserved characteristics both with respect to union membership and earnings
capacity, such as regularity in work or higher ambitions. There may, as with union
membership in itself, be a problem with reversed causality associated with cash fund
membership, since it is possible that union members and/or high earners were more inclined
to become members in cash funds.
Obviously, the above described variables are examples of factors that are stressed in various
arguments on the determinants of women’s and men’s wages and of earnings differentials
according to gender. According to human capital theory, age, experience and being an
apprentice are related to productivity and hence to earnings. They may also route individuals
to different ‘high’ and ‘low’ paying industries (measured by proxy for example by
19
geographical location) as well as among various specialties and tasks on the job. Some argue,
by contrast, that the effect of sex and of the existence of various specialties that pay different
wages tend to be minimized. In addition to the role of human capital, social and institutional
factors may also be of importance. Moreover, there are aspects of monopsony as well as of
crowding due to sex discrimination to be taken into consideration.
Method
In order to investigate the determinants of union membership and the union earnings effect,
particularly with respect to gender differentials in the Swedish tobacco industry by 1898, we
estimate a number of equations. In order to answer the question of who became a union
member and what were the determinants of the differences in unionization between men and
women, we estimate Probit regressions, which is suitable when the dependent variable is
dichotomous (union member-not member). If we set y to be the dependent variable (dummy:
zero-one), and let x and z be the independent variables, then the Probit specification is:
Prob (y = 1) = F (bx + cz),
Prob (y = 0) = 1 - F (bx + cz)
where b and c are the coefficients of x and z, and F(.) is the normal distribution function
function.
In order to investigate the earnings effects of unionization, we estimate a typical earnings
function (Mincer, 1974), with interactions to analyze statistically significant differences
between men and women, and between different groups of workers. To assess the magnitude
of a number of explanatory variables, we estimate a linear regression (OLS) with the
dependent variable being log weekly earnings.
As described above some of the independent variables are continuous and some are dummy
variables. All variables included take into consideration important factors that determine
individual earnings, yet we are fully aware of the complex endogeneity issues. Nevertheless,
we believe that our investigation adds to a fuller understanding of the associations between
union membership, earnings and various background factors. Means of variables used in the
analysis are found in Table 4.
Table 4 about here
20
Results
Turning to the results, our first model estimates of the probability of being a union member
for male and female workers age 15 an over, indicates that women were about 23 per cent less
likely than men to be union members in the Swedish tobacco industry in 1898. When running
regressions separately for men and women, we can tell from Tables 6a and 6b, that the model
holds stronger explanatory power when it comes to account for the determinants of male
union membership in the tobacco industry than when it comes to female union membership. 19
Our results also indicate some gender differences in effects, but the general impression is that
the same factors were of importance for both men and women.2021
Table 5a about here
Table 5b about here
Age had a positive effect on both male and female union membership although each year
added somewhat more to men’s probability of being a union member. Of course, age effects
for both men and women were subject to diminishing returns. There was no association
between neither health status nor having kids at home, irrespective of gender. Although
proven to be important when it comes to earning differentials (Karlsson & Stanfors, 2007),
the male breadwinner norm in rule, did not work through civil status for men. For women, on
the other hand, being married or having been previously married added a statistically
significant effect to the probability of being a union member of 5 and 10 per cent,
respectively, in relation to women who were single.
Moving from the effects of personal characteristics, and turning to the workplace related
determinants of union membership, we find that being involved in cigar making was a
significant factor. It was relatively more important for men than for women. Men who worked
in other branches of production than cigar making were 57 per cent less likely to be union
members and the equivalent effect for women was 15 per cent. As expected, skilled workers
were more inclined to be union members. For women, the higher the skill level, the higher
19
All results are estimated with heteroscedasticity corrected standard errors, using the Huber-White sandwich
estimator.
20
Interactions prove that most of the differences in effects between men and women mentioned in the text are
statistically significant. The exceptions are those of apprenticeship and cash fund.
21
As an alternative, we also run Robert Fairlie’s extension of the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition (Fairlie 1999,
2006) to our probit model of being a union member and find that our results hold strikingly well, both when it
comes to impact and significance.
21
was the probability of being a union member, but for men only the category ‘skilled’ renders a
statistically significant effect. The pattern is, however, as expected one of increasing
probability of being a union member for the semi-skilled and skilled in relation to unskilled
workers, but less so for foremen who probably found it more difficult to join the union due to
double loyalties. Serving as an apprentice was, as expected, positively associated with union
membership for men as well as women, and the effect of apprenticeship was actually
somewhat bigger for women than for men. In general, differences in work experience appear
to have been small to explain the probability of being a union member in the late nineteenth
century. Clearly, other factors were more important determinants of union membership. Wage
form, however, made a difference for men as well as for women, although the effect of being
paid by the piece was stronger for men. Work hours had weak, yet statistically significant,
effects for men as well as for women, although the effect was positive for men and negative
for women.
When looking at some effects of institutional and social factors, we find that male as well as
female workers in larger firms were more likely to be union members than those in small
firms. For men, the probability of being a union member also increased with being employed
in a firm located outside the three big cities. As expected, we find that those who also
belonged to a cash fund were more likely to be union members than others.
Thus, our results confirm what we already knew, namely that men were more likely to be
union members than women. But now we also know that to a high degree the same factors
affected men’s and women’s probability of becoming union members. Examples hereof, that
exerted a positive effect on union membership, are: age, being involved in cigar production,
skill level, being an apprentice, being paid by the piece, and being member of a cash fund.
Nevertheless, there were some gender differences in the magnitude of effects with the effects
of cigar production, piece rates, and cash fund membership being much stronger for men than
for women. Moreover, workplace characteristics such as firm size and countryside location
proved to be more important for men than for women, whereas women’s probability of
becoming union members was more affected by civil status and skill level than were men’s.
Moving on to explore the earnings effects of union membership, we take our point of
departure in the fact that the average weekly income of unionized workers exceeded those of
their non-union co-workers by about 14 per cent of the nonunion wage for both male and
22
female workers. The question is whether it was unionism per se or other characteristics of the
workers who earned more that accounted for the earnings differential?
We know that unionized workers, to a higher degree than not unionized workers, belonged to
the skilled group of workers and were involved with cigar production. These workers tended,
in general, to have higher average earnings. In order to investigate the relationship of earnings
to union membership, we regress the log weekly earnings on union status and a number of
personal characteristics as well as industry and workplace related characteristics (see above).
We first estimate a full model, then running regressions separately for groups with different
skill level and for cigar workers.22
Table 6 about here
From Table 6, we see that union membership had a positive effect on earnings of about seven
per cent, however the negative effect of being female was much stronger (21 per cent) and so
was the increasingly positive effect of skill level. Most variables have effects in accordance
with our previously stated expectations. When exploring the association between gender,
unionization and earnings, the separate regressions’ results reported in Table 7 show that
union membership was much more rewarding for men than for women. Union membership
added a much larger bonus to male earnings than for female earnings (15 and 6 per cent,
respectively), supporting the opinion that unions in the late nineteenth century were working
in the interest of male rather than female workers (cf. Kessler Harris, 1982, 2007).
Interactions confirm that the differential in union earnings effect by gender is statistically
significant. The variables exert rather similar effects for men and women, but generally the
effects are stronger for men, with the exception of being semi-skilled/skilled, experience of
the occupation and being paid by the piece. The observed differences in the effects of skill
level are, however, not statistically significant different between men and women with the
exception of the strong and positive effect of being semi-skilled for women. Women who
were paid by the piece earned about eight per cent more than those who got their wages in
other forms. The fact that piece rates only show a significant effect in the case of women
reflects the fact that it was much more common that women were paid by the piece. In many
ways this was beneficial for women and, as Claudia Goldin argues, a way to secure women
22
It would have been an alternative to estimate a so called Heckit model, taking consideration of the sample
selection of workers into union membership that generates earnings differentials.
23
from discrimination. Goldin (1990) has advanced a thesis of emerging wage discrimination
from 1890 to 1940, occurring in clerical work but not in manufacturing industry. She argues
that sex segregation was not intentional in manufacturing industry but rather it was defined by
different job requirements. Because many women in manufacturing were paid by the piece,
productivity was the main basis for pay once the rate was set. The piece rates could, however,
be discriminatory in themselves, given occupational segregation.23
Table 7 about here
Table 8 about here
Table 8 report the results from separate regression according to skill level and for workers
involved in cigar production, controlling for a number of explanatory variables at both
individual, firm and industry level. Union membership is positively associated with earnings
in relation to non-union membership status, although not statistically significant for the semiskilled. For all groups of workers, women suffered from a negative earnings effect in relation
to men, although the cost of being female varied among groups of different skill level. It
nevertheless seems that women in skilled jobs and cigar production were better able to escape
from the differentials in pay that their less skilled co-workers suffered from. Earnings rise, as
expected, with age (with diminishing returns) for all groups, and also with experience of
occupational specialty for all but the semi-skilled. One way of interpreting this is that learning
on the job was important and that occupation-specific training was important in the still
crafts-like late nineteenth century Swedish tobacco industry, however, for the semi-skilled
training for particular jobs or working with certain machines was not as rewarding as for the
other groups (cf. Maddox & Eichengreen, 1989:21).
Table 9 about here
Our results indicate that actually unions elevated the earnings of the already rather well-paid
workers more than others. This suggests that union activity increased earnings inequality
among the tobacco workers. Eichengreen (1987), in a similar study analyzing 1894 data for
multiple industries in Iowa, found that unions had a wage-leveling effect. This is confirmed
23
Piece rates were also partly a solution to women’s problems with work-family at that time. Murray & Keith
(2004:363) argue that the fact that much women’s work was remunerated by the piece, enabled women to work
24
by Hatton, Boyer & Bailey (1994), analyzing a similar data set yet with other techniques.
They find, like we do, that the effect of union membership on earnings was rather similar at
different skill levels and that the difference in impact of unions on earnings was greater across
industries (cf. Dillon & Gang, 1987). From Table 9, that reports the coefficient of variation of
the log of weekly earnings by gender, skill level and cigar production, we can tell that the
earnings of union members show much less wage dispersion than those of non-unionized
workers. This suggests that, at the same time, union activity tended to equalize earnings
within categories such as gender, skill level and occupational specialty, and kept up earnings
inequality between the different categories. Becoming a union member was thus a rational
decision of both men and women in order to improve individual earnings and so it was for
workers of different skill levels. Our results show that union membership had economic
effects for the individual; that the effects were stronger for men and the most skilled but that
also women and less skilled workers benefited from being union members. Union activity was
therefore, not only good for the upper end of the labor market. Perhaps this changed when
mechanization became more of a threat to the workforce and especially the less skilled
suffered from rationalization pressure and women were facing a new rhetoric of a
strengthened male breadwinner norm and with demands for protective labor legislation.
Conclusion
In this paper, we have looked into the role of unions and the way union membership affected
earnings differentials in the Swedish tobacco industry in 1898. In many ways this has been a
neglected field of research, mainly due to the lack of good data. Our analysis contributes to
our understanding of what determined union status and how unionization affected earnings
differentials in earlier times thanks to an extensive and informative micro-level dataset. Our
study also adds a gender dimension to the previous, highly male-biased, economic historical
research on the subject matter.
The tobacco industry in Sweden was by 1898 still rather crafts-like in its production. There
was a clear gender division of labor, but it was less pronounced than it previously had been.
Different jobs required different skills and our results give at hand that experience and
learning on the job were important aspects of the trade. Some low-skilled occupations were
more or less flexible hours – a fact that actually is taken notice of in the Swedish investigation as well. Not least
was this an important aspect for women with young children.
25
almost exclusively female but women were not excluded from high-skilled occupations.
Women were also allowed as members in the trade union that was created in 1889.
Our results confirm that men were more likely to become union members, but that mainly the
same factors were of importance as determinants of union status for both men and women.
Age, skill, being a cigar worker, being paid by the piece and apprenticeship were important
characteristics of those who were union members, irrespective of gender. Interesting gender
differences to note were the fact that skill and experience were more important determinants
for women than for men and that for women, but not for men, having breadwinning
responsibilities were positively associated with union membership. For women, skill level as
well as experience of the trade proved important in a more comprehensive way, suggesting
that many women who worked in the tobacco industry had a strong work attachment. For
men, firm size and workplace location affected union status in a way that confirms the thesis
of both previous historical research of labor organization and the theory of monopsony, i.e.,
that early unionization was strongest at larger workplaces.
Union membership affected the earnings of different categories of tobacco workers. In
general, the average weekly income of unionized workers exceeded those of their non-union
co-workers. Our results confirm that union membership had a positive effect on earnings but
that men benefited significantly more than women from being union members and when it
comes to different skills, more skilled workers benefited significantly more than less skilled
workers. Earnings differentials were, however, to a very high degree affected by other factors
than unionism. Our results give at hand that gender was a significant factor at work in the late
nineteenth tobacco industry. For all groups of workers, women suffered from a negative
earnings effect in relation to men, although the cost of being female varied among groups of
different skill level. It therefore seems that women in skilled jobs and cigar production were
more able to escape from the differentials in pay that their less skilled co-workers suffered
from.
Our results show that unions raised the earnings of the groups of workers that already were
better paid than others meaning that union activity actually increased earnings inequality,
rather than had a leveling effect. At the same time, union activity tended to equalize earnings
26
within categories such as gender, skill level and occupational specialty. Becoming a union
member was thus a rational decision of both men and women in order to improve individual
earnings and so it was for workers of different skill levels. Our results show that union
membership had economic effects for the individual; that the effects were stronger for men
and the most skilled but that also women and less skilled workers benefited from being union
members. Union activity was therefore, not only good for the upper end of the labor market.
However, gender and systematic differences in occupational and skill distribution interacted
with a clear focus on the male workers on behalf of the unions, meaning that, in reality, the
trade union served more in the interest of male rather than female workers in the tobacco
industry, something that in a couple of decades became even more obvious when
mechanization and rationalization of the production of tobacco goods put pressure on the
workforce and women faced a new rhetoric of a strengthened male breadwinner norm and
with demands for protective labor legislation.
27
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tobaksindustriarbetareförbundet.
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495-501.
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Manila.” Explorations in Economic History, 41: 361–376.
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Specialundersökningar Tobaksindustrien 1898, Statistiska avdelningen, HIII b:1 aa) vol 1,
Kommerskollegiets arkiv, Riksarkivet.
30
Table 1. Share of tobacco workers age 15 and above who were union members by selected
characteristics, restricted sample, 1898.
Total
Men
Women
%
%
1161
48
52
1092
50
50
69
6
94
Unskilled
95
3
97
Semi-skilled
156
9
91
Skilled
905
59
41
5
100
-
1-49 workers
205
51
49
50-99 workers
461
48
52
> 100 workers
495
45
54
Big city
883
39
61
Other location
278
75
25
Union members
Branch
Cigar workers
Others
Skill-level
Foremen
Firm size
Workplace location
31
Table 2. The gender composition of the workforce, age 15 and over, in the tobacco industry
in 1898.
Branch
Total
Men
Women
Female/male
N
%
%
earnings
ratio
Cigars
2690
33
67
0.66
Roll tobacco
539
47
53
0.48
Snuff
176
97
3
0.51
Smoke tobacco
72
62
38
0.62
Cigarettes
307
4
96
0.95
Other
21
95
5
0.31
NA
60
78
22
0.66
3865
37
63
0.65
All branches
Note: The category ‘other’ refers to workers not directly employed in tobacco production.
Source: Elmquist 1899:193.
Table 3. Distribution of skill level by sex among workers age 15 and over in the Swedish
tobacco industry in 1898.
Total
Skill level
Men
Women
%
%
Unskilled
1291
23
72
Semi-skilled
692
16
84
Skilled
1760
49
51
Foremen
63
89
11
NA
59
80
20
3865
100
100
Total
Source: Elmquist, 1899:194.
32
Table 4. Means and proportions of variables used in the analyses by sex.
Variable
Union
Type
Definition
Men
Women
Dummy24
Not a union member
0.473
0.717
Union member
0.527
0.283
2.47
2.09
34.19
28.91
Natural logarithm of
ln W
Continuous
weekly earnings
Age when survey was
Age
Continuous
carried out
Age when survey was
Age2
Health
Kids
Civil status
Career
Continuous
carried out2
1392.96
993.53
Dummy25
Good health
0.820
0.735
Health problems
0.180
0.265
No kids at home
0.613
0.768
Kids at home
0.387
0.232
Single
0.495
0.739
Married
0.424
0.186
Previously married
0.081
0.76
Have not had career break
0.987
0.951
Have had career break
0.013
0.049
0.734
0.763
production
0.266
0.237
Unskilled
0.181
0.363
Semi-skilled
0.081
0.249
Foreman
0.737
0.398
Not an apprentice
0.917
0.961
Dummy
Dummy26
Dummy
interruption
Working in other branch
Branch
Dummy
than cigar production
Working in cigar
Skill level
Apprentice
Dummy27
Dummy
24
Union and the following dummy variables have outcome 0-1: kids at home, career interruption, apprentice,
and cash fund.
25
Health and the following dummy variables have outcome 1-2: bransch, piece rates, and workplace location.
26
Civil status and workplace size have outcome 1-3.
27
Skill level has the outcome 1-4.
33
Variable
Type
Time in
occupation
Being an apprentice
0.083
0.039
Definition
Men
Women
14.84
7.84
Years in occupation
Continuous
specialty
Years in occupation
Time in
occupation 2
Continuous
specialty 2
408.89
142.57
Piece rates
Dummy
Other wage form/ Paid by
0.329
0.256
Paid by the piece
0.671
0.744
Continuous
Hours worked per week
57.48
56.01
Dummy
Firm size: 1–49 workers/
0.222
0.200
Firm size: 50–99 workers
0.437
0.363
Firm size: > 100 workers
0.341
0.436
Big city area
0.643
0.826
Other location
0.357
0.174
Not a cash fund member
0.425
0.537
Cash fund member
0.575
0.463
the piece
Work hours
Workplace size
Workplace
Dummy
location
Cash fund
Dummy
34
Table 5.a. Probability of being a union member for male workers age 15 and over in the
Swedish tobacco industry, 1898, Probit estimates of the determinants.
Variable
Coefficient
Standard error
Marginal
effects
Constant
-5.237***
1.109
0.094*
0.053
0.04
- 0.002***
0.001
- 0.00
0.061
0.150
0.02
- 0.113
0.176
- 0.04
Married
- 0.206
0.188
- 0.08
Previously married
0.088
0.210
0.03
0.323
0.140
0.13
- 2.041***
0.085
- 0.57
0.563
0.090
0.22
1.037***
0.829
0.35
0.739
0.293
0.29
0.359*
0.122
0.14
0.052
0.010
0.02
- 0.000
0.00009
- 0.00
0.835***
0.084
0.30
Age
Age square
Health – Good (ref .cat.)
Health problems
Kids at home – No (ref. cat.)
Yes
Civil status – Single (ref. cat.)
Career interruption – No (ref.
cat.)
Yes
Branch – Cigar production
(ref. cat.)
Other branch
Skill level – Unskilled (ref.
cat.)
Semi-skilled
Skilled
Foreman/woman
Apprentice – No (ref. cat.)
Yes
Experience in occupation
specialty
Experience in occupation
specialty square
Wage form – Other (ref. cat.)
Piece rates
35
Variable
Coefficient
Standard error
Marginal
effects
Work hours
0.032**
0.007
0.01
50-99 workers
0.398***
0.077
0.15
> 100 workers
1.045***
0.087
0.40
0.561***
0.082
0.22
0.536***
0.061
0.20
Firm size – 1-49 workers (ref.
cat.)
Workplace location – Big city
area (ref. cat.)
Other location
Cash fund membership – No
(ref. cat.)
Yes
No of obs
1047
Wald chi2 (21)
223.39
Prob > chi2
0.0000
Pseudo R2
0.5295
36
Table 5.b Probability of being a union member for female workers age 15 and over in the
Swedish tobacco industry, 1898, Probit estimates of the determinants.
Variable
Coefficient
Standard error
Marginal
effects
Constant
- 1.820***
0.561
Age
0.099***
0.018
0.03
Age square
- 0.001***
0.000
- 0.00
0.039
0.075
0.01
- 0.143
0.091
- 0.04
Married
0.166*
0.094
0.05
Previously married
0.305**
0.135
0.10
0.156
0.142
0.05
- 0.576***
0.090
- 0.15
Semi-skilled
0.410***
0.098
0.13
Skilled
0.571***
0.092
0.18
-
-
-
0.530***
0.167
0.19
0.026*
0.014
0.01
- 0.000
0.000
- 0.00
0.319***
0.095
0.09
Health – Good (ref .cat.)
Health problems
Kids at home – No (ref. cat.)
Yes
Civil status – Single (ref. cat.)
Career interruption – No (ref.
cat.)
Yes
Branch – Cigar production
(ref. cat.)
Other branch
Skill level – Unskilled (ref.
cat.)
Foreman/woman
Apprentice – No (ref. cat.)
Yes
Experience in occupation
specialty
Experience in occupation
specialty square
Wage form – Other (ref. cat.)
Piece rates
37
Variable
Coefficient
Standard error
Marginal
effects
Work hours
- 0.024***
0.009
- 0.01
50-99 workers
0.234**
0.094
0.07
> 100 workers
0.073
0.102
0.02
- 0.062
0.110
- 0.02
0.330***
0.071
0.10
Firm size – 1-49 workers (ref.
cat.)
Workplace location – Big city
area (ref. cat.)
Other location
Cash fund membership – No
(ref. cat.)
Yes
No of obs
2148
Wald chi2 (21)
397.25
Prob > chi2
0.0000
Pseudo R2
0.1811
38
Table 6. Log weekly earnings estimated for workers aged 15 and over in the Swedish tobacco
industry, 1898, OLS regression estimates of the determinants.
Variable
Constant
Coefficient
Standard
Marginal
errors
effects
1.413***
0.110
0.069***
0.013
0.07
Woman
- 0.212***
0.016
- 0.21
Age
0.040***
0.003
0.04
Age square
- 0.000***
0.000
- 0.00
- 0.040***
0.013
- 0.04
0.029*
0.016
0.03
0.063***
0.017
0.06
- 0.006
0.022
- 0.00
- 0.088***
0.027
- 0.09
0.127***
0.016
0.13
Semi-skilled
0.134***
0.020
0.13
Skilled
0.402***
0.019
0.40
Foreman/woman
0.763***
0.082
0.76
- 0.346***
0.028
- 0.35
Union membership – No (ref.
cat.)
Yes
Sex – Man (ref. cat.)
Health – Good (ref .cat.)
Health problems
Kids at home – No (ref. cat.)
Yes
Civil status – Single (ref. cat.)
Married
Previously married
Career interruption – No (ref.
cat.)
Yes
Branch – Cigar production
(ref. cat.)
Other branch
Skill level – Unskilled (ref.
cat.)
Apprentice – No (ref. cat.)
Yes
39
Variable
Standard
Marginal
errors
effects
0.008***
0.002
0.01
- 0.000***
0.000
- 0.00
Piece rates
0.058***
0.018
0.06
Work hours
- 0.002
0.002
- 0.00
50-99 workers
0.055***
0.016
0.06
> 100 workers
0.036**
0.017
0.04
- 0.112***
0.017
- 0.11
0.112***
0.018
0.14
Experience in occupational
Coefficient
specialty
Experience in occupational
specialty square
Wage form – Other (ref. cat.)
Firm size – 1-49 workers (ref.
cat.)
Workplace location – Big city
area (ref. cat.)
Other location
Cash fund membership – No
(ref. cat.)
Yes
No of obs
3202
F-statistics
271.56
Prob (F-stat)
0.0000
R-squared
0.6192
40
Table 7. Log weekly earnings estimated for male and female workers aged 15 and over in the
Swedish tobacco industry, 1898, OLS regression estimates of the determinants.
Men
Variable
Constant
Union membership – No (ref.
cat.)
Yes
Age
Age square
Health – Good (ref .cat.)
Health problems
Kids at home – No (ref. cat.)
Yes
Civil status – Single (ref. cat.)
Married
Previously married
Career interruption – No (ref.
cat.)
Yes
Branch – Cigar production
(ref. cat.)
Other branch
Skill level – Unskilled (ref.
cat.)
Semi-skilled
Skilled
Foreman/woman
Apprentice – No (ref. cat.)
Yes
Experience in occupational
specialty
Coefficient
(st errors)
0.462**
(0.221)
Marginal
effects
0.153***
(0.030)
0.061***
(0.008)
- 0.001***
(0.000)
0.15
0.06
- 0.00
Women
Coefficient
Marginal
(st errors)
effects
1.547***
(0.113)
0.059***
(0.013)
0.031***
(0.003)
- 0.000***
(0.000)
0.06
0.03
- 0.00
- 0.034
(0.028)
- 0.03
- 0.023*
(0.014)
- 0.02
- 0.001
(0.038)
- 0.00
0.022
(0.017)
0.02
0.095**
(0.039)
0.056
(0.041)
0.10
0.018
(0.018)
0.015
(0.024)
0.02
- 0.007
(0.098)
- 0.01
- 0.070***
(0.024)
- 0.07
0.142***
(0.046)
0.14
0.083***
(0.016)
0.08
0.017
(0.052)
0.378***
(0.051)
0.711***
(0.101)
0.02
0.153***
(0.020)
0.382***
(0.019)
0.575***
(0.166)
0.15
- 0.351***
(0.043)
- 0.002
(0.005)
0.06
0.38
0.71
- 0.35
- 0.00
- 0.226***
(0.034)
0.014***
(0.003)
0.02
0.38
0.58
- 0.23
0.01
41
Men
Variable
Experience in occupational
specialty square
Wage form – Other (ref. cat.)
Piece rates
Work hours
Firm size – 1-49 workers (ref.
cat.)
50-99 workers
> 100 workers
Workplace location – Big city
area (ref. cat.)
Other location
Cash fund membership – No
(ref. cat.)
Yes
Coefficient
(st errors)
- 0.000***
(0.000)
Marginal
effects
- 0.00
- 0.015
(0.052)
0.006
(0.003)
- 0.02
0.116***
(0.230)
0.114***
(0.035)
0.12
0.01
0.11
Women
Coefficient
Marginal
(st errors)
effects
- 0.000***
- 0.00
(0.000)
0.083***
(0.179)
- 0.005***
(0.002)
0.08
- 0.01
0.020
(0.018)
0.006
(0.018)
0.02
0.01
- 0.112***
(0.033)
- 0.11
- 0.146***
(0.021)
- 0.15
0.112***
(0.033)
0.15
0.109***
(0.014)
0.11
No of obs
1047
2155
F-statistics
88.83
129.37
Prob (F-stat)
0.0000
0.0000
R-squared
0.6526
0.5439
42
Table 8. Log weekly earnings estimated for workers aged 15 and over, according to skill
level, and working in cigar production, in the Swedish tobacco industry, 1898, OLS
regression estimates of the determinants.
Variable
Constant
Union membership – No (ref.
cat.)
Yes
Sex – Man (ref.cat.)
Woman
Age
Age square
Health – Good (ref .cat.)
Health problems
Unskilled
Semi-skilled
Skilled
Coefficient
(st errors)
1.775***
(0.188)
Coefficient
(st errors)
1.264***
(0.284)
Coefficient
(st errors)
1.753***
(0.166)
Cigar
workers
Coefficient
(st errors)
1.254***
(0.123)
0.052*
(0.030)
0.021
(0.027)
0.097***
(0.016)
0.083***
(0.013)
- 0.302***
(0.037)
0.041***
(0.004)
- 0.001***
(0.000)
- 0.127**
(0.062)
0.038***
(0.009)
- 0.000***
(0.000)
- 0.207***
(0.017)
0.027***
(0.006)
- 0.000***
(0.000)
- 0.183***
(0.018)
0.030***
(0.004)
- 0.000***
(0.000)
- 0.025
(0.024)
- 0.054*
(0.031)
- 0.055***
(0.016)
- 0.036***
(0.014)
0.016
(0.029)
0.018
(0.036)
0.050**
(0.020)
0.037**
(0.016)
0.122***
(0.033)
- 0.060
(0.039)
0.105***
(0.038)
- 0.024
(0.056)
0.043**
(0.020)
0.006
(0.026)
0.039**
(0.018)
- 0.007
(0.022)
- 0.087*
(0.046)
- 0.099**
(0.051)
- 0.084**
(0.040)
- 0.069**
(0.029)
- 0.038
(0.025)
0.275***
(0.025)
0.247***
(0.050)
Kids at home – No (ref. cat.)
Yes
Civil status – Single (ref. cat.)
Married
Previously married
Career interruption – No (ref.
cat.)
Yes
Branch – Cigar production
(ref. cat.)
Other branch
Skill level – Unskilled (ref.
cat.)
Semi-skilled
Skilled
Foreman/woman
0.024
(0.026)
0.392***
(0.022)
0.870***
43
Unskilled
Semi-skilled
Skilled
Coefficient
(st errors)
Coefficient
(st errors)
Coefficient
(st errors)
(0.090)
Cigar
workers
Coefficient
(st errors)
0.436***
(0.060)
0.017***
(0.003)
- 0.000***
(0.000)
- 0.270***
(0.091)
0.007
(0.009)
- 0.000
(0.000)
- 0.441***
(0.030)
0.008**
(0.003)
- 0.000*
(0.000)
- 0.403***
(0.030)
0.011***
(0.002)
- 0.000***
(0.000)
- 0.018
(0.022)
- 0.006*
(0.003)
0.079
(0.051)
- 0.000
(0.003)
0.146***
(0.044)
0.001
(0.002)
0.036
(0.023)
0.004**
(0.002)
0.061**
(0.023)
- 0.072**
(0.030)
0.077*
(0.045)
0.117**
(0.047)
0.120***
(0.020)
0.081***
(0.021)
0.060***
(0.017)
0.037**
(0.017)
- 0.191***
(0.030)
- 0.309***
(0.062)
- 0.036
(0.023)
- 0.117***
(0.020)
0.168***
(0.022)
0.113***
(0.030)
0.112***
(0.016)
0.127***
(0.013)
No of obs
972
622
1568
2414
F-statistics
-
32.02
92.17
214.95
Prob (F-stat)
-
0.0000
0.0000
0.0000
0.4912
0.4888
0.5458
0.6405
Variable
Apprentice – No (ref. cat.)
Yes
Experience in occupational
specialty
Experience in occupational
specialty square
Wage form – Other (ref. cat.)
Piece rates
Work hours
Firm size – 1-49 workers (ref.
cat.)
50-99 workers
> 100 workers
Workplace location – Big city
area (ref. cat.)
Other location
Cash fund membership – No
(ref. cat.)
Yes
R-squared
44
Table 9. Dispersion of earnings measured as the coefficient of variation for union and nonunion workers by gender, skill level, and cigar production.
Coefficient of variation
Means of log income
Union
Non-union
Union
Non-union
Men
14.49
28.10
2.624
2.301
Women
13.76
19.91
2.303
2.011
Unskilled
13.56
22.31
1.998
1.853
Semi-skilled
16.36
21.20
2.167
2.096
Skilled
13.15
18.42
2.551
2.326
Cigar
15.82
21.86
2.458
2.051
production
45