Output per man-hour rose in the United States between 1938 and 1951. 1 At the same time, the compensation of employees (wages, salaries, and supplements thereto) remained a fairly constant proportion of national income, ranging from 62 to 67 percent. 2/ Real-wage advances in the major industry classes listed in Table 50 therefore probably came out of greater productivity rather than at the expense of recipients of other 1/ There is no official United States productivity index, but the President's Council of Loonomio Advisers estimated the average yearly imrease in output per man-hour from 1890 to 1949 at 2.0 to 2.5 percent, annually compound ed (U. S. Congress, Report of the Joint Committee on the Economic Report, 1950, Appendix A), and the U. S. Department of Commerce put the rate of increase in gross private product per man-hour from 1909 to 1951, broadly estimated, at somewhat more than 2 percent" animally (U. S. Department of Commerce, Markets after the Defense Expansion, 1952, p. 75). 2/ These proportions, for the years 1938 through 1951 respectively, as follows! 66, 66, 64, 62, 62, 64, 66, 67, 65, 64, 63, 65, 64, 64. Computed from U. S. Department of Commerce, Survey of Current Business, National Income Number, July 1952, Table 1, pp. 12-13. income forms as a group. Table 50 shows that between 1938 and 1951 workers in the lowwage industries generally subject to the Act received, after abstracting cost-of-living increases, an additional share (20 cents an hour) of the national product nearly equal in absolute size to that received by workers in all manufacturing industries as a group (21 cents an hour), slightly more than that received by workers in the high-wage covered industries (18 cents an hour), and twice that received by employees in the low-wage nonsubject trades (10 cents an hour). Translated to percent terms, these absolute increments meant that over the 14-year period workers in the low-wage subject industries enjoyed a relative gain in real purchasing power (49 percent) greater than workers in the other industry groups, while personnel in the low-wage nonsubject trades, with a 23percent gain, kept relative pace with employees in the high-wage subject lines (20-percent gain) but not with employees in the all-manufacturing category (35percent gain). 63489 0-55-22 BIBLIOGRAPHY Government Sources U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1947 U. S. Census of Manufactures, Volume II. U. S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics: For Southern sawmilling: Wage Structure Series 2, No. 76, Lumber in the South 1949 and 1950. (Also summarized in Monthly Labor Review, Sept. 1950, pp. 313-317.) For fertilizer: Wage Structure Series 2, No. 77, Fertilizer 1949 and 1950. (Also summarized in Monthly Labor Review, Jan. 1951, pp. 33-37.) Trends in Man-Hours Expended per Ton. Selected Types of Fertilizer 1939 to 1946, May 1948. Trends in Man-Hours Expended per Ton, Selected Types of Fertilizer 1946 to 1947, March 1950. Trends in Man-Hours Expended per Ton, Selected Types of Fertilizer 1947 to 1948, April 1950. Trends in Man-Hours Expended per Ton in the Manufacture of Fertilizer, 1948 to 1949, March 1952. Monthly Labor Review, 'Hours and Earnings in the Fertilizer Industry, January 1943, Aug. 1943, pp. 337-348. For men's dress shirts and nightwear: Wage Structure Series 2, No. 80, Men's Dress Shirts and Nightwear 1950, and Wage Structure Series 2, No. 75, Cotton Garments 1949. (Also summarized in Monthly Labor Review, Aug. 1951, pp. 166-170.) Man-Hours Expended per Dozen Men's Dress Shirts 1939 to 1947, May 1948. Man-Hours Expended per Dozen Men's Dress Shirts 1947 to 1948, March 1950. Man-Hours Expended per Dozen Men's Dress and Sport Shirts 1948 to 1949, Case Study Data on Productivity and Factory Performance, Men's Dress Shirts, For men's seamless hosiery: Monthly Labor Review, June 1951, pp. 674-676. Wage Structure Series 2, No. 32, Hosiery 1946. For wood furniture (except upholstered): Monthly Labor Review, June 1951, pp. 672-674. Wage Structure Series 2, No. 30, Wood Furniture 1945. Other material of the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics used for this report includes information either unpublished or issued in individual press releases; hours and gross earnings data from Monthly Labor Review, Table C-1; employment data from Monthly Labor Review, Table A-3, or from the Division of Manpower and Employment Statistics; price data from the Division of Prices and Cost of Living; and the following articles from Monthly Labor Review: 'Distribution of Factory Workers by Hourly and Weekly Earnings,' June 1942, pp. 1278-1282. 'The Level of Factory Wage Rates in Wartime,' Oct. 1943, pp. 637-649. U. S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Divisions: Annual Report 1950, 'Economic Effects of the 75-Cent Minimum Wage Rate,' pp. 260-272. Annual Report 1951, 'Economic Effects of the 75-Cent Minimum Wage Rate,' pp. 45-47. Findings from investigations of establishments with reported adjustment problems because of the 75-cent minimum wage. Some of these findings have been published in Annual Report 1950, Appendix Table 0, pp. 316-317. Minimum Wages in the Seamless Hosiery Industry, March 1941. U. S. Executive Office of the President, Bureau of the Budget, Standard Industrial Classification Manual, Vol. I, Manufacturing Industries, Νον. 1945. U. S. Library of Congress, Legislative Reference Service, Economic Factors in Statutory Minimum Wages, by Gustav Peck, April 1948. Nongovernment Sources Backman, Jules, editor, War and Defense Economics, New York, Rinehart & Company, Inc., 1952, Chapter VIII, 'Wage Controls and Labor Disputes,' pp. 188-213. Willis, H. A., and Montgomery, R. E., Organized Labor, New York, NcGrawHill Book Company, Inc., 1945, Vol. 3, 'Economics of Labor,' pp. 370-382. University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Finance and Commerce, Capital Requirements and Operating Ratios Men's Shirt Industry 1949 and 1950, prepared for the Mutual Security Agency and U. S. Department of Labor, Sept. 1952. |