Posted on 11/30/2014 4:35:08 PM PST by abigkahuna
Hello FRiends,
I am researching some information for another book (this one dealing w/D-Day and the Homefront)
Try as I might, I have not been able to find any information regarding civilian wages during war time. I can find all the charts and pretty graphs taking about a as a percentage of this, that, and the but I will be darned if I can find listed in terms of dollars per hour/day, etc for various occupations.
I am particularly interested in ship building in the SF Bay Area. Wages differences between male/female and black/white. This is not a sociological book, but those bits of information are important in knowing and describing the various characters.
I thank you in advance in steering me in the right direction for my research.
Sincerely,
abigkahuna
I had my first factory job in 1962 for $1 per hour.
6 months later I joined the Navy and got $78 per month.
In 1945 minimum wage was $0.30 per hour.
Thank you both for your insight. Perhaps I should give a short synopsis.
About ten days ago, I was rummaging around the back pages of the internet and came upon a complete day broadcast of D-Day by CBS and NBC on archive.org. Was down in the barn working and listening to the broadcast and imagined what it would be like actually listening to this as it unfurled in 1944. So, the mind churned and thus a potential novel. One of the characters is a black woman shipyard worker in Oakland/Richmond, CA, hence my question regarding wages.
Once again, thanks for your input.
Thank you both for your insight. Perhaps I should give a short synopsis.
About ten days ago, I was rummaging around the back pages of the internet and came upon a complete day broadcast of D-Day by CBS and NBC on archive.org. Was down in the barn working and listening to the broadcast and imagined what it would be like actually listening to this as it unfurled in 1944. So, the mind churned and thus a potential novel. One of the characters is a black woman shipyard worker in Oakland/Richmond, CA, hence my question regarding wages.
Once again, thanks for your input.
As I recall, when I was a A/3c in the USAF in 1955, my take-to-the-barracks pay was $40/month. But I lived on base and ate in the chow hall and was able to put gas in my De Soto. I even had money left over to have a few “CC and Sevens” on the weekends in some dive in Panama City.
When I became A/1c, I was really living high on the hog.
Traveled in uniform at half price anywhere in the States and had many more privileges than the average GI has today. The general population liked us. Of course, this was all before the Vietnam War.
So glad I served under Ike.
You can find a minimum wage chart on the web for starters. I believe Fed min wage began in 1938. If it was Navy the records are around for sure. Also try Ancestry. Might try a maritime historical society, local SF libraries, or just do some googling and look for WWII ships. You will find a lot of info that should give you a good start. Also, look for Asbestos lawsuits where sailors were the plaintiffs. Those files will have tons of info including earnings, co-workers, etc.
Withholding of taxes began during the war years. There had to be political discussion on the govt trying to collect two years of taxes in the same year.
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=2092
I recall my grandmother saying that she earned something like 39cents per hour during the WW2 years in a factory making some sort of components. She was in her 20s at the time, I think. I don’t think this is the information you’re looking for, but it’s the best I have. My grandfather(her husband) was IN the war, and managed to survive to come back and give birth to my mother, and a few others. lol
Dig around in the following and it may help you some.
It does list hourly wages but will take some digging.
http://libraryguides.missouri.edu/c.php?g=28284&p=174168
“The average weekly wage for female skilled workers in 1944 was $31.21; the average for comparable males was $54.65” - See more at: http://m.patriotledger.com/article/20090506/News/305069577#sthash.WZIe6PMf.dpuf
WWII shipbuilders played Santa, worked for free on Christmas Day
http://legacy.utsandiego.com/news/military/20041219-2356-shipbuildingsantas.html\
Wages for Trade Workers in the Inter-war Era
http://www.columbia.edu/~jrs9/BNY-WB.html
I remember my when my Dad (T/Sgt at Luke AFB) making $90 per month.
He did everything he could do to bring in a few more bucks, i.e.; Fixing TV’s at home, working part-time as a bartender & playing poker. On top of that he was taking night classes at Tempe studying Herpetology.
Although he’s long gone, he’s still my favorite person...forever.
You might also want to post this question in one of the forums on usmilitariaforum.com.
Just make sure you post it in the right section. A remarkable number of historians, knowledgeable people on that forum. WWII is a real speciality.
Have you posted the question on any other history related forum?
Wages on the homefront were booming during WWII
So much so that FDR put in cost control measures. One of them was wage freezes. Cost controls on prices and rationing were also instituted leading to a booming black market.
So companies began offering “free healthcare” to entice workers and get around the FDR wage controls.
Also - the same with rent control. Rents were going crazy in several cities so these cities put in rent control measures to keep workers.
70 YEARS LATER (after WWII ended) - we still have these programs because politicians found they could buy votes with them.
And these programs have destroyed these “private sectors” sectors so much so that we now have obamacare and millionaires living in 7 bedroom NYC apartments paying $200/month.
All because FDR wanted to control wages/prices during WWII...
Thank you Ontap,
While military wages are pretty easy to find, civilian wages are proving a bit more difficult. For example, in the Kaiser shipyards, there were segregated unions, why? who knows, but that’s how things rolled back then.
I might just need to write Kaiser and find out if they still retain that information in their records. Or, if I can figure out the union locals involved, they might have that information.
If you peruse classified ads for that time period, many ads indicate what the daily or weekly wage is for a specific job. A lot of FReeper Homer Simpson’s postings from WWII have articles about labor disputes during the time period, which may relate what the wage disputes, if any, entailed.
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