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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR L. B. Schwellenbach, Secretary BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS Isador Lubin, Commissioner (on leave) A . F. Hinrichs, Acting Commissioner Trends in Urban W age Rates October 1944 to A p ril 1945 ♦ B u lletin Tvfo. 846 For sale by the Superintendent o f Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office Washington 25, D. C. - Price 5 cents Letter o f Transmittal U n it e d S t a t e s D e p a r t m e n t o f L a b o r , B u r e a u o f L a b o r S t a t is t ic s W ashington, D . C ., Septem ber 2 8 , 19Jfi The S e c r e t a r y o f L a b o r : I have the honor to transmit herewith a report on the trend in urban wage rates, October 1944-April 1945. This report was prepared in the Bureau’s Wage Analysis Branch under the direction of Frances M . Jones. A. F. H i n r i c h s , A cting C om m issioner. H on . L. B. S c h w e l l e n b a c h , Secretary o f Labor. (h i ) Contents Page lO 00 00 (IV) 1 1 CO Summary___________________________________________________________________________ Wage movements in manufacturing industries___________________________________ Causes of wage-rate changes__________________ Wage-rate changes in industry groups-----------Regional comparisons_________________________ W age movements in nonmanufacturing industries Wage-rate changes in industry groups________ Regional comparisons________________________________________________________ 10 Bulletin ?^jo. 846 o f the U nited States Bureau o f Labor Statistics [Reprinted from the M onthly L abor R eview , September 1945] Trends in Urban Wage Rates, October 1944 to April 19451 Summary BASIC wage rates, as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics index of urban wage rates, continued to rise between October 1944 and April 1945, but a leveling off of the upward trend was observed in both manufacturing and nonmanufacturing industry. The great est increase occurred principally in the lower-paid industries, where advances beyond the limits of the “ Little Steel” formula are per mitted by War Labor Board policy with respect to “ substandard” wages, and in those piece-rate industries characterized by frequent changes in piece rates owing to changes in job content. The South eastern and Middle Atlantic States registered the largest increases throughout industry in general. Wage rates declined in a few areas. The Bureau’s index is affected by changes in basic wage rates re sulting from general changes in pay scales and by individual wage-rate adjustments within occupational classifications. It excludes the effect of such factors as premium pay for overtime and late-shift work, the shifting of employment among regions, industries, and occupa tions, and most of the changes in the composition of the labor force. The index covers manufacturing industry and selected branches of nonmanufacturing in urban areas. Wage Movements in Manufacturing Industries Urban wage rates in manufacturing establishments in April 1945 had advanced an average of 1.6 percent above the level of October 1944; this was a smaller increase than any registered during a 6-month period since the outbreak of the war. The increase from April 1944 to October 1944 was 2.2 percent; between January 1941 and April 1945, wage rates rose by about 32 percent. During the January 1941 to April 1945 period, total weekly earnings rose 77 percent, and total hourly earnings 53 percent. The difference between the latter figures and the 32-percent change in urban wage rates indicates the composite effect on the average individual’s earn ings of numerous wartime factors, chief among which are long hours of work and premium overtime and late-shift pay, together with the 1 For a more complete description of the Bureau’s measure of urban wage trends and the findings of previ ous surveys, see Wartime Wage Movements and Urban Wage Rate Changes, in Monthly Labor Review, October 1944, and Trends in Urban Wage Rates, April-October 1944, in Monthly Labor Review, February 1945. Urban wage-rate trends should not be confused with trends of factory earnings in the Labor Review, published monthly by the Bureau. The latter series is based on gross earnings of all wage earners and thus reflects such factors as hours of work, premium pay for overtime and late-shift work, and shifting of employment among regions, industries, and occupations. The estimated straight-time average hourly earnings are computed by applying a correction factor to gross average earnings. 669220°—45 (1 ) CHART I TREND OF EARNINGS AND WAGE RATES IN MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY moo JANUARY 1941 >100 3 shifting of employment from lower-wage consumer industries to war industries. It is noteworthy that both gross weekly earnings and gross hourly earnings showed somewhat lower rates of increase than wage rates. “ Adjusted” hourly earnings, which are gross hourly earnings corrected for premium overtime payments and interindustry employment shifts, continued to show a higher rate of increase than did urban wage rates. A comparison of the measurements of wage movements is shown in table 1 and chart 1. T a b l e 1.— Comparative Sum m ary o f Changes in Earnings and W age Rates in Manufacturing, January 1941 to A p ril 1945 Percent of increase in speci fied period Percent of Increase per month8 Num ber of Gross Gross Ad Gross Gross Ad months week hour justed week hour justed hour Urban hour Urban wage wage ly ly ly ly ly ly earn earn earn rates earn earn earn rates ings ings ings1 ings ings ings 4 Period Total period (January 1911—April 1945)............. - ................................ 51 77.0 53.0 38.7 8 32.4 1.1 0.8 Prestabilization period (January 1941-Octobcr 1942)................. ........ Stabilization period (October 1942April 1945).................... ................. October 1942-April 1943.............. April 1943-October 1943.............. October 1943-April 1944.............. April 1944-October 1944.............. October 1944-April 1945.............. 21 46.0 30.7 20.7 3 17.0 1.8 30 6 6 6 6 6 21.3 9.2 5.6 41.5 3.0 .5 17.0 5.7 4.7 4 2.5 4 1.8 1.4 15.0 *13.2 3.3 *3.0 3.5 3.8 3.1 1.9 2.2 2.3 1.6 2.0 .6 1.5 .9 4. 2 .5 .1 0.6 *0.6 1.3 .9 3.8 .5 .9 .8 .4 .3 .2 .5 .5 .6 .5 .4 .3 *.4 3.5 .6 .3 .4 .3 i Hourly earnings excluding premium payments for overtime, and with industries weighted in proportion to their 1939 employment. 8 In obtaining these monthly overages it has been assumed that the increase for each month is computed as a percentage of the rate at the beginning of that month. In most cases, therefore, the monthly figures are slightly lower than those computed by dividing the percentage for an entire period by the number of months in the period. * Partly estimated. < Revision of previously published data. CAUSES OF WAGE-RATE CHANGES Factors responsible for the advance in wage rates are to be found in general wage changes affecting a significant proportion of the workers in an establishment, merit increases and other individual wage adjust ments, and greater incentive earnings. Labor turn-over also exercised some influence. General wage changes, reported by approximately a tenth of all establishments surveyed, were an influencing but not a major factor in the advance in manufacturing rates. The total increase in wage rates that can be ascribed to general wage changes is about 0.5 percent, which is not quite a third of the total increase. Individual wage adjustments, including merit increases, account for the major portion of the advance in wage rates. The effect of such adjustments is seen in greater intraplant concentration of workers near the top of established rate ranges than was observed in 1944. The advance for incentive workers 2 as a group was somewhat greater than that for time workers, despite the fact that some incentive work ers experienced decreased earnings. Whereas the average increase 8 For incentive workers, average hourly earnings exclusive of premium overtime and late-shift pay are used in lieu of wage rates. Numerous variables affecting piece and bonus rates make infeasible the use of such rates in the Bureau’s index. 4 for all workers was 1.6 percent, rates of time workers increased only 1.3 percent, which is not an insignificant difference in view of the fact that about two-thirds of all manufacturing workers are time workers. Furthermore, the greatest industry-wide advance in wage rates occurred in industries which pay large groups of workers on a piece-rate basis. Observations for previous periods likewise have disclosed rela tively greater increases for incentive workers than for time workers. Labor turn-over had various and somewhat counterbalancing effects on wage rates. Many employers made replacement, or increased employment, by hiring workers at the lower rates in established wage-rate ranges. Partially offsetting the accessions in lower brackets were the practices of reducing employment when necessary by releasing lower-rate persons first and, by some employers, of hiring at topbracket rates. The effect on the national index of labor turn-over and of local interplant employment shifts is believed to be negligible. WAGE-RATE CHANGES IN INDUSTRY GROUPS The amount of change in wage rates shown by groups of related manufacturing industries between October 1944 and April 1945 varied from an increase of 0.1 percent for products of petroleum and coal to a 6.7-percent increase for apparel and allied products (table 2). Leather and leather products advanced 4.2 percent. Both the apparel and the leather-products groups contain a large proportion of piece workers. Tobacco manufactures was a third industry group that had increased rates substantially above the average increase for all manu facturing for the 6-month period. The 3.7-percent increase registered by tobacco manufactures was the greatest 6-month advance shown for the tobacco industries since April 1943, and brought the total increase for the industry group since April 1943 up to the average for all manufacturing industries. Some of the increase in the tobacco industries resulted from general improvement in the wage status of workers in the lower brackets, in line with War Labor Board policy concerning substandard wages. The greatest changes, however, were in the cigar industry and can be traced directly to substantial increases in incentive earnings. The printing, publishing, and allied industries and the rubber-products industries also registered above-average wage increases. Significant reductions in previous rates of increase are observed in textfle-mill products, furniture, chemicals, and metalworking. * As the National War Labor Board’s February decision permitting increases for the lower-paid workers in a large portion of the textile industry did not receive approval by the Director of Economic Stabilization until May, changes resulting from that decision were not reflected in the April index. Shipbuilding showed a small increase which was at least partially due to adjustments of occupational wage differentials in East Coast yards in line with a War Labor Board directive. As a result of shifting incentive earnings, the iron and steel industry partially regained a slight wage loss it had experienced during the preceding period. The War Labor Board’s basic steel decision of November 25, 1944, concerns primarily shift-differential pay and vacations, and probably will not affect basic wage rates materially, although some increases eventually may take place in average basic wage rates as the result of intraplant adjustments in occupational differentials. 5 T able 2 .— Percent o f Change in Urban Wage Rates in M anufacturing, by Industry Group, A p ril 1943 to A p ril 1945 Percent of change from— April 1943 to October 1943 Industry group October 1943 to April 1944 April 1944 to October 1944 October 1944 to April 1945 April 1943 to April 1945 All industries................................................................ +3.8 +1.9 +2.2 +1.6 + 9.9 Food and kindred products.................................. ...... Tobacco manufactures................................................. Textile-mill products................................................... Apparel and allied products........................................ Lumber and timber basic products............................ Furniture and finished lumber products.................... Paper and allied products........................................... Printing, publishing, and allied industries................. Chemicals and allied products....................... ............ Products of petroleum and coal................................... Rubber products..... .......................................... ......... Leather and leather products...................................... Stone, clay, and glass products................................... Basic iron and steel........ ............................................. Shipbuilding........................ ....................................... Metalworking (except basic iron and steel and ship building).................................................................... +3.2 +1.1 +2.7 -.2 0) +3.4 +5.2 +3.1 +2.4 -.3 +2.0 +4.5 0) (3) + .4 +1.1 +3.1 +2.7 +5.0 (0 +1.8 +• 2 +1.6 +1.3 (2) +2.5 +4.0 0) 4 + .7 + .4 hi. 9 hi. 7 _ -2.3 h7.6 0) +2.9 +1.7 +2.5 +1.2 + .3 +1.4 +4.2 (0 4- . 6 + .5 +1.4 +3.7 +1.1 +6.7 +7.7 +10.0 +9.2 +20.4 +5.4 +1.9 +2.0 0) +1.0 + .4 +2.1 + .8 +. 1 +2.0 +4.2 0) + .4 + .8 +1.2 0) +9.5 +7.6 +9.6 +5.7 + .1 +8.2 +18.0 (0 * + .5 +2.1 +10.7 i Representation inadequate to show percent of change. * Less than a tenth of 1 percent. * Data not available for April 1943. * Revision of previously published data. *October 1943 to April 1945. REGIONAL COMPARISONS Urban wage rates in manufacturing industry advanced above the average increase for the country as a whole in 3 of the 9 economic regions into which the country has been divided for purposes of analyz ing wage movements (table 3). The Middle Atlantic States in creased by 2.3 percent between October 1944 and April 1945, the Southeastern States by 2.1 percent, and New England by 2.0 percent. The industry groups which showed the largest increases— namely, apparel, leather products, and tobacco— are largely concentrated in these 3 regions. The textile industries in the Southeastern States increased by only 1.3 percent in comparison with the region's 2.1 percent, but the lower percentage increase in textiles was offset by substantial regional advances in wage rates in several other indus tries, notably the metalworking industries, apparel, chemicals, basic iron and steel, tobacco, and food. An actual reduction in average wage rates by seven-tenths of 1 percent for the region as a whole oc curred in the Mountain States, principally as the result of a 2.1-percent reduction in the average wage rates for Denver, Colo. The decline in the Denver average was due partially to a loss in incentive earnings, but primarily to a decline of employment in certain high-wage establishments. Memphis showed the greatest wage-rate increase among the 28 large cities for which separate data can be presented. The 6.0-percent increase for Memphis for April 1945 represented advances in wage rates for most of the manufacturing industries of that city. This same situation existed in Birmingham, where wages advanced 4.1 percent. 6 The increase in New York City rates of 4.7 percent was influenced largely b j the sharp rise in apparel wages, although small increases were registered by several industries. A slight decline occurred in Pittsburgh, in addition to the 2.1-percent reduction previously men tioned for Denver. The reduction in Pittsburgh, as in Denver, was the result, not of wage cuts but rather of a combination of factors including labor turn-over and lowered incentive earnings because o f reduced production. A comparison of the combined average increase in wage rates for large cities (100,000 population and over) with the average increase for smaller cities indicates but slight variation by size of city. The larger cities showed an increase of 1.7 percent and the smaller cities** showed an increase of 1.4 percent. T a b l e 3 .— Percent o f Change in Urban W age Rates in Manufacturing, by Econom ic Region ana Selected Area , A p ril 1943 to A p ril 1945 Percent of change from— Economic region and urban area* All regions ,. ............ New England ... _ Boston____________________________ Providence_________________________ Middle Atlantic........................................... Buffalo____________________________ Newark___________________________ New York_________________________ Philadelphia.......................................... Pittsburgh______________ __________ Border_____ ___ _______________________ Baltimore__________________________ Louisville__ ______________ _________ Southeast_____________________________ Atlanta____________________________ Birmingham_______________________ Memphis__________________________ Oreat T<akaa . .. _ . Chicago___________________________ Cleveland_________________________ Detroit_______ _________ __________ Indianapolis_______________________ Milwaukee_________________________ Minneapolis ... _ Middle W est--________________________ Kansas City........................ ................. St. Louis................................................ Southwest ... . _ __ ___ Dalles _ _ __ ___ Houston___________________________ New Orleans _ . Mountain_____________________________ Denver____________________________ Pacific. ______________________________ Los Angeles.___________ ____ _______ Portland___________________________ San Francisco______________________ Seattle____________ _____ __________ April 1943 to October 1943 April 1944 October 1943 to to October 1944 April 1944 October 1944 to April 1945 April 1943 to April 1945 +3.8 +1-9 + 2.2 + 1.6 +9.9' +3.2 +1.3 +2A + 2.0 +8.9+ 12.1 + 6.6 +11. 7 +14.4 +12.3+17.5 +7.8 + 4.7 + 5.8 + 5.0 + 10.2 + 1.1 +2.6 +2.9 +2.3 +3.5 + .5 + 2.8 +6.4 +1.6 + 3.6 +2.0 *+2.7 +2.3 + 2.2 +1.4 + 1.6 +3.3 *+1.8 +2.7 *+1.2 +5.1 +1.3 +4.8 +3.3 +4.2 +1.2 + 2.0 +1.7 +3.0 +2.7 + -3 +1.4 +3.1 + 1.2 + 1.1 +1.7 + 1.0 +1.5 +1.7 +•8 +3.0 +2.3 +4.6 +1.3 + 1.0 +2.7 +1.8 + 1.0 +1.3 +.8 +.8 +.4 +3.7 +.9 +2.3 +1.8 +.9 + 4 .7 + .7 +.5 +1.3 +2.1 +2.9 +4.1 + 6.0 +1.3 +2.1 + 1.0 0 +.6 +1.5 + 1.6 +1.3 +3.1 +.8 + 1.1 + 2 .4 +. 1 + 1.0 - .7 -2.1 + 1.1 +1.2 +.2 0 + .3 +10.6 + 11.0 + 11.1 +15.1 + 9 .7 +10.4 +10.4 +6.4 + 6.6 + 7.7 + 6.6 +10. fr + 8.1 +12.7 + 8.2 +13.7 + 2 .7 +10.0 + 7 .5 + 7.2 + 8.2 +10.9 + 1.4 +2.1 + 4 .0 * The data are based on observations in 69 areas. For the names of other areas within the various regions* seo Monthly Labor Review, October 1944 (p. 690). * Revision of previously published data. 7 CHART 2 PERCENTAGE INCREASE IN WAGE RATES 28 URBAN AREAS MANUFACTURING AND NONMANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES APRIL 1943 - APRIL 1945 MANUFACTURING SELECTED NONMANUFACTURING 30 NEW YORK MEMPHIS BUFFALO DALLAS ST. LOUIS NEWARK BOSTON BIRMINGHAM ATLANTA LOS ANGELES CHICAGO CLEVELAND LOUISVILLE NEW ORLEANS KANSAS CITY PHILADELPHIA MILWAUKEE DENVER PROVIDENCE INDIANAPOLIS MINNEAPOLIS DETROIT BALTIMORE PITTSBURGH SEATTLE HOUSTON SAN FRANCISCO PORTLAND, OREGON UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OP LABOR BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS 8 Wage Movements in Nonmanufacturing Industries The nonmanufacturing index represents only selected nonmanu facturing industry groups; namely, wholesale trade, retail trade, finance, insurance and real-estate establishments, local utilities, and the service industries. Urban wage rates rose 3.7 percent in these industries between October 1944 and April 1945. This increase in wage rates, although greater than the advance in wages recorded for the same months of 1943 and 1944, represented a decline in the rate .•of increase as compared with the April 1944-October 1944 period (table 4). It brings to 17.9 percent the increase in wage rates since April 1943 for the selected nonmanufacturing industries. The factors responsible for wage-rate changes in these nonmanu facturing industries appear to be the same as those causing wage-rate gains in manufacturing; namely, general changes in establishment wages simultaneously affecting substantial groups of workers, merit increases and other individual wage adjustments, labor turn-over, and, in some industries, increased incentive earnings. Of these, individual wage adjustments are the most important. War Labor Board policy with respect to substandard wages permits substantial and widespread rate increases in these relatively low-wage industries. The increase in wage rates chargeable to general wage-rate changes for the October 1944-April 1945 period was only 0.7 percent, or less than a fifth of the total percentage change. T a b l e 4.— Percent o f Change in Urban W age Rates in Selected Nonmanufacturing Industries, by Industry Group, A p ril 1943 to A p ril 1945 Percent of change from April 1943 to October 1943 October 1943 to April 1944 Total, selected industries............................................. +6.4 2+2.5 Wholesale trade............................................................ Retail tra de............................ .................................... Finance, insurance, and real estate............................. Local utilities................................................................ Service trades............................................................... +2.5 +9.2 +3.9 +1.5 +6.4 +2.0 2+2.7 +3.1 +1.1 +2.4 Industry group1 April 1944 to October 1944 2+4.2 +2.9 2+5.7 +1.6 + .3 + 5.4 October 1944 to April 1945 April 1943 to April 1945 +3.7 +17.9 (-1. 5 h4.6 H4.5 hi. 5 h3.2 + 9.2 +24.0 +13.7 + 4.5 +18.4 1 The specific industries selected to represent these groups in the measurement of wage-rate changes were as follows: Wholesale trade—general-line wholesale groceries; retail trade—department stores, clothing stores, and groceries; finance, insurance, and real estate—banks and savings and loan associations; local utilities— electric light and power or gas companies; service trades—hotels, power laundries, and auto-repair shops. 2 Revision of previously published data. WAGE ItATE CHANGES IN INDUSTRY GROUPS Retail trade, which employs almost as many urban workers as all the other combined nonmanufacturing industries covered by the index, again showed the greatest gain of any of the 5 industry groups studied. The rate of increase in retail-trade wage rates amounted to 4.6 percent, as compared with 5.7 percent advance for the previous 6-month period. Since wage rates for time workers in this industry group advanced only 2.6 percent during the 6-month period ending in April 1945, it is evident that workers paid on a commission basis were the principal beneficiaries of wage increases. The amount of increase in wage rates for all retail-trade workers was far from uniform throughout the country, ranging from 0.5 percent in the Pacific States to 7.1 percent in the Border States. With this latest increase in the retail-trade index, wage rates for the industry group as a whole have advanced 24.0 percent since April 1943; for individual regions the total increase registers a low of 13.6 percent in the Pacific States and a high of 32.3 percent in the Southwest. The trend of urban wage rates for retail trade in each of the 9 economic regions is presented in table 5. The service trades, in which an advance of 5.4 percent in wage rates was observed for the previous 6-month period, likewise showed a diminished rate of increase for the October 1944-April 1945 period, when wage rates rose only 3.2 percent. A little more than a third of this rise in basic wage rates resulted from general wage changes. Increases in incentive earnings were reported for the auto-repair shop division of the service-trades group, but individual wage adjustments apparently were the most important factor contributing to the rise in wage rates for the industry group as a whole. The total increase for these service industries from April 1943 to April 1945 was 18.4 percent. The amount of increase for each region is shown in table 5. T a b l e 5.— Percent o f Increase in Urban W age Rates in Retail Trade and Service Trades by Economic Region , A p ril 1943 to A p ril 1945 Percent of increase Retail trade Service trades Economic region April 1943 to April 1944 April 1944 to April 1945 April 1943 to April 1945 April 1943 to April 1944 April 1944 to April 1945 April 1943 to April 1945 All regions................................................... i 12.1 10.6 24.0 8.9 8.7 18.4 New England.............................................. Middle Atlantic.......................................... Border......................................................... Southeast ................................................... Great Lakes................................................ Middle West............................................... Southwest.................................................... Mountain.................................................... Pacific.......................................................... 17.2 12.0 14.7 113.5 113.8 15.5 21.3 7.4 4.9 8.3 11.4 9.1 13.8 11.6 9.1 9.1 10.2 8.3 16.1 24.8 25.1 29.1 27.0 26.0 32.3 18.4 13.6 6.8 6.6 11.8 13.2 7.3 15.8 16.4 8.4 8.0 8.3 5.4 9.8 13.7 10.4 11.2 11.1 6.7 7.5 15.6 12.4 22.7 28.7 18.5 28.8 29.4 15.7 16.1 i Revision of previously published data. Urban wage rates in finance, insurance, and real-estate offices advanced more between October 1944 and April 1945 than during any other 6-month period since the index was started in April 1943. The increase was approximately the same amount (4.5 percent) as that shown by retail trade, although the total increase since April 1943 in the finance-industries group was only 13.7 percent as contrasted with a 24.0-percent rise in retail trade. Merit promotions for women workers iu positions which men formerly occupied in these financial, insurance, and real-estate offices apparently were a more important factor during the recent survey period than previously. General wage changes accounted for less than a fifth of the total change in wage rates. Wage rates showed a great deal more stability in wholesale trade and local utilities than in other nonmanufacturing industries studied. 10 They advanced only 1.5 percent in each of the two industry groups during the recent survey period, and showed relatively small increases over the entire period covered by the index. T a b l e 6.— Percent o f Change in Urban Wage Rates in Selected Nonmanufacturing Industries, by Economic Region and Selected Area , A p ril 1943 to A p ril 1945 Percent of change from— Economic region and urban area1 April 1943 October 1943 April 1944 October 1944 April 1943 to A pril to October to April to April to October 1944 1944 1943 1945 1945 All regions.. +6.4 *+2.5 *+4.2 +3.7 +17.9 England _ _ _ __ Boston____________________________ Providence_________________________ Middle Atlantic........................................... Buffalo__ ____ ______ _____ _________ Newark_____________ ____ _________ New York............ ................................. Philadelphia.......................................... Pittsburgh................... ....... ......... ........ Border , _ _ _. Baltimore___________________ ______ Louisville_________ ______ __________ Boutheast __ , _ Atlanta____________________________ Birmingham_______________________ Memphis....... ...... ............ ........... ......... Gr«at Lakes Chicago____________________________ Cleveland__________________________ Detroit____________________________ Indianapolis________________________ Milwaukee_________________________ Minneapolis_______ ______ ______ ___ Middle West................................................ Kansas City_______________________ • St. Louis................................................ Southwest_____________________________ Dallas_______________ ______ _____ Houston___________________________ New Orleans_______________________ Mountain_________________ __________ Denver- _ ..... . _ Pacific___________ _________ ___________ Los Angeles________________________ Portland___________________________ San Francisco_____________________ Seattle_____________________________ +3.3 +2.3 +5.6 +2.3 +3.5 +3.3 +1.3 +3.0 +4.0 +4.1 +5.6 +4.8 + 2.0 +2.4 + 6.2 +4.2 +2.3 +4.8 + 3.6 +4.0 +4.8 + 5.6 +13.7 +13.8 + 9.5 +16.7 + 2.0 +6.5 +4.6 +9.3 *+3.6 +8.2 *+2.1 +3.8 +3.2 +1.9 + 2.1 +2.4 +2.7 + 2.6 *+6.4 +6.3 + 8.8 + 2.2 *+6.0 +3.0 +3.8 +1.9 +2.5 —.3 +3.5 -4 .1 +4.2 + 5.7 + 3.5 +3.8 + 2.1 +1.7 + 2.1 *+8.7 +6.3 +3.5 +5. 5 *+2.1 +4.6 +7.6 +8.6 +3.0 +11.4 + 5.6 +3.9 +3.5 +4.0 +2.7 +2.7 +1.8 +3.2 +1.7 +4.9 +3.3 +4.3 +3.0 + 2.6 + 1.1 +.8 + 6.6 + 5.9 +4.0 * +.7 + 2.8 +4.9 +.7 +2.5 - 1.0 - 2.0 +.4 + 8.6 +19.7 +17.7 - -19.8 - - 10.4 +19.5 +16.5 --23.5 --26.2 +27.7 --24.6 --23.1 + 20.6 +23.4 - -17.2 +25.6 +9.3 +20.3 + 11.0 +19.5 +19.3 +19.2 +26.3 +25.4 + 22.1 +23.8 +15.2 +14.0 + 9.8 +12.3 + 10.1 + 7.3 + 6.0 * The data are based on observations in 69 areas. For the names of other areas within the various regions, see Monthly Labor Review, October 1944 (p. 690). * Revision of previously published data due to changes in sample. REGIONAL COMPARISONS The greatest regional increases for the recent 6-month period (4.8 percent) occurred in the Southeastern, Middle Atlantic, and Border States. The index for the combined nonmanufacturing industries in April 1945 showed a total increase since April 1943 of 26.2 and 26.3 percent, respectively, in the Southeast and Southwest; 19.5 to 20.6 percent in the Middle West, Border, and Great Lakes regions; 15.2 and 16.7 percent, respectively, in the Mountain and Middle Atlantic States; 13.7 percent in New England; and 9.8 percent in the Pacific States. Among the 28 large cities for which data can be shown, the largest increases (exceeding 5 percent) for the recent 6-month period were observed in Providence, New York, Atlanta, and Kansas City. Decreases, ranging from 0.3 to 4.1 percent, were registered for Indian- 11 apolis, Portland, San Francisco, and Minneapolis. Since April 1943, nonmanufacturing wage rates in 10 of the 28 cities showed increases amounting to between 20 and 28 percent; in 7 cities the increase was from 15 to 20 percent, in 6 from 10 to 15 percent, and in 5 only 5 to 10 percent. A study of both regional and individual city data on wage trends during the period of wage stabilization seems to indicate that there occurred over this period a narrowing of previously existent regional differences in wage rates. The largest increases took place in the lowwage areas. Thus, in the generally high-wage Pacific region rates advanced only 6.0 percent in Seattle since April 1943, whereas lowerwage Los Angeles showed a 12.3-percent increase; in the Middle Atlantic region Buffalo advanced 8.6 percent, and Philadelphia 19.8 percent; in the lower-wage Southeast and Southwest areas, sub stantially larger increases were observed (for example, 24.6 percent in Birmingham and 25.4 percent in Dallas). Except in a few cases where special factors control the situation, advances in wage rates over the long period can be correlated with prestabilization wage levels. * An analysis of trends in nonmanufacturing wage rates in relation to size of city discloses a 5.6-percent increase for small cities and a 3.3percent increase for large cities since October 1944. The total increase from April 1943 to April 1945 was approximately 20 percent in small cities and a little more than 17 percent in large cities. II. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 19 48
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