The low-wage jobs on the whole received larger percent increases than the high-wage ones, but the amounts involved were generally small and the pattern irregular.

Earnings changes between March and October 1950 were marked in each region by increases in the proportion of plant workers in the wage scale's middle sector (85 cents to $1.249 an hour) and upper sector ($1.25 or more an hour), and by decreases in the percent of those averaging below 85 cents an hour (Table 37). Most pay increases during this period were in the form of a uniform cents-perhour amount (usually 5 cents, but up to 10 cents in a few cases) for all plant workers receiving the raise. This tended to continue the process, begun as a short-run consequence of the 75-cent rate, of contracting percent differentials within the wage structure of each region. Over the longer-run period from September 1949 to October 1950, percent spreads between lowand high-paid jobs were reduced in Winston Salem-High Point and Morganton-Lenoir but not changed much in Martinsville (Tables 39, 40, 41).

These spreads were still not changed much in Martinsville by July 1952, but in Winston SalemHigh Point by then, because of larger percent increments to the better-paid jobs after October 1950 there, most of the higher minimum's contracting effect on occupational wage spreads seems to have been offset.

Table 38 summarizes the changes in average hourly earnings in the three surveyed regions between the various survey dates. Over the short-run period, these

earnings rose only one percent in the lowest-wage area, remained constant in the highest-wage region, and fell one percent in Martinsville. The earnings decrease in Martinsville was attributable to an increase in the number of lower-paid workers employed there at the time.

Advances in hourly earnings were larger between March and October 1950 than during the months immediately preceding, being seven percent in Martinsville and eight percent in the other two areas. These advances were probably caused chiefly by the general business upswing in this country after the first quarter of the year, and especially after the North Korean attack in June. There was little widening or narrowing of differences in wage levels among the three regions during this period, or over the entire interval from September 1949 to either October 1950 or July 1952.