Wages and Salaries and Their Composition, 1940-45

The relatively greater increase in economic activity in all segments of the West Coast economy during the war years is indicated in the increasing proportions of the country's total wages and salaries paid to the major industry groups of wage and salary earners on the West Coast, except manufacturing, in which some decline occurred during the last war years (table 4). Table 5 and the chart show the relative importance of the major industrial components of wages and salaries on the West Coast and in all other States during the war period.

Aggregate wages and salaries.-Since the increase in wages and salaries was greater on the West Coast than in the rest of the country, this type of payment rose from 9.5 percent of the country's total in 1940 to 12.1 percent in 1945. The rate of growth during the war years was also greater for each of the industry components of total wages and salaries and, with a few exceptions, greater than in any other region.

TABLE 4.-Percent that West Coast wages and salaries form of national total, by components, 1940–45 1

TABLE 5.-Percentage distribution of civilian wages and salaries and their components, West Coast and all other States, 1940 and 1943-45 1

1 Source: Based on data from Department of Commerce.
After deduction of employees' contributions under social-insurance programs.
Before deduction of social-insurance contributions.

Before deduction of civil-service retirement contributions of employees.

Manufacturing wages and salaries.-These rose 365 percent in the Pacific States from 1940 to 1945. Because a substantial part of the increase was due to war manufacturing, a considerable decline occurred in 1945 after the end of the war. During the same period factory pay rolls increased only 164 percent in the rest of the country, but the relative decline in 1945 was much less than in the West Coast States. The increased importance of manufacturing on the West Coast as a result of the war is indicated by the region's proportions of the country's total manufacturing pay roll-5.8 percent in 1929, 6.6 percent in 1940, and 11.3 percent in 1943. The region's factory pay rolls became the most important component of total civilian wages and salaries, rising from 22.7 percent of the total in 1940 to 42.3 percent in 1943. In spite of the drop in war manufactures, the proportion of manufacturing wages and salaries in 1945 was still greater than that of trade and service.

Farm wages. With the highest wage level for farm labor in the country, the West Coast attracted farm workers during the war when other areas were losing them. West Coast farm wage rates, starting from a relative high level at the beginning of the war, increased more rapidly than in any other region, thus raising aggregate farm wages in this area from 14.6 percent of the country's total in 1933 to 17.1 percent in 1940 and to 24.3 percent in 1945. Aggregate farm wages in the 3 West Coast States almost equalled the amount paid in the 13 Southern States where 5 or 6 times as many hired farm workers were employed. With a smaller proportion of farm labor in the Pacific Coast labor force than in the rest of the country, farm wages were 4.8 percent of total civilian wages and salaries in 1945 compared with 2.0 percent in the other States.

Trade and service wages and salaries.-Increases in wages and salaries and other types of income helped to swell the amounts of wages and salaries paid in the Pacific trade and service industries between 1940 and 1945 by about 94 percent. The comparable figure for the rest of the country is 62 percent. Nevertheless, trade and service pay rolls became a less important component of total wages and salaries during the war because of the restrictions on consumer goods and services, and the greater importance given to manufacturing and agriculture. Trade and service pay rolls on the West Coast decreased from 33.9 percent of total wages and salaries in 1940 to 21.9 percent in 1943; but with the decline in war manufacturing in 1945, they rose to 26.3 percent.

Federal Government (civil executive) wages and salaries.- Pay rolls in the executive branch of the Federal Government in the West Coast region increased from 9.4 percent of the national total in 1940 to 15.3

percent in 1945. These payments increased more than fivefold in the Pacific States between 1940 and 1945, compared with an increase of 279 percent for the rest of the country. The greater expansion in Federal pay rolls on the West Coast resulted from the greater relative increase in war activity in the region.

Homesteads for Veterans in Yakima Valley1

SEVENTEEN HUNDRED acres of irrigated farm lands in the Yakima Valley of the State of Washington were opened as homesteads for men and women veterans of World War II on April 1, 1947. The land is part of more than 4,100 acres of public lands of the Roza Division of Yakima Project which are to become available for homesteads as rapidly as the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation can complete irrigation facilities that are under construction.

In announcing the availability of the initial 28 homesteads in this region, the Secretary of the Interior stated that the land is rich and suitable for a variety of crops, when irrigated. Sixteen of the 28 farms allotted to veterans in April were fully or partly developed on a lease basis during wartime. The remaining 12 units are lowlands covered with sagebrush. Each unit is from 40 to 100 acres.

To qualify, a veteran must have had at least 90 days' service during World War II. His eligibility was determined by a board of examiners and, in general, was dependent upon 2 years of farm experience, $3,000 in liquid capital or assets or credit usable in the development of an irrigated farm, good character and industry, and the physical ability to do the required farm work. Applicants also were required to meet the principal qualifications of the Federal homestead laws including age (21 years or head of a family, with exceptions for veterans), citizenship (citizens or having declared their intention to become citizens), and limitation of land ownership (not more than 160 acres in the United States). The cost to the homesteader was only the Government fee and irrigation construction charges.

1 Information is from press release No. 14229 of the U. S. Department of the Interior, Information Service, dated February 14, 1947.

Postwar Wage Developments in the Pacific Region'

VJ-DAY IN 1945 marked the beginning of negotiations leading toward widespread wage adjustments on the Pacific Coast. The relatively high degree of union organization in the Pacific region provided machinery for negotations on a broad area basis, and many significant and far reaching wage changes were made. This article summarizes available information on the movement of manufacturing and nonmanufacturing wages in the region during recent years, and discusses significant wage negotiations in a number of the region's leading industries that influenced the course of postwar wage movements.

The Pacific States have long enjoyed a favorable position in the Nation's wage structure. As a region these States have the highest general wage level in the country, and their major cities rank among the top-wage areas in the United States.

West Coast wages in 37 manufacturing and 7 nonmanufacturing industries are compared with industry-average wages in table 1. Although the choice of industries for which data are presented was limited by the availability of recent information, those selected demonstrate conclusively the high general wage level of the Pacific region.*

Recent Wage-Rate Trends in Manufacturing

This wage leadership, established over a long period of time, has been maintained during the recent war and postwar years. The Bureau of Labor Statistics index of urban wage rates, available since

1 Prepared by Leonard R. Linsenmayer, Wage Analyst, of the Bureau's San Francisco Regional Office. The Pacific region as referred to in this article comprises the States of Washington, Oregon, California, and Nevada.

The article is not concerned with the technical aspects or evaluation of Government wage-price policies and machinery following VJ-day. For a discussion of this subject, see Wage Policy and the Role of FactFinding Boards, Monthly Labor Review, April 1946 (p. 537).

See also Regional Wage Differentials (Labor in the South), Monthly Labor Review, October 1946, and Intercity Variations in Wage Levels, Bureau of Labor Statistics Bulletin No. 793 (reprinted from Monthly Labor Review, August 1944).

For the latest report on urban wage trends for the United States as a whole, see Monthly Labor Review, March 1947 (p. 369).

The urban wage rate series measures trends in basic wage rates resulting from general wage changes and from Individual wage-rate adjustments within individual occupational classifications. For incentive workers, they reflect changes in straight-time hourly earnings of key occupational groups. They exclude the effects of such factors as the shifting of employment among regions, industries, and occupations, and most of the changes in the composition of the labor force, as well as changes in payments for overtime and late-shift work, vacations and holidays, and other similar items.

Data for the national studies have been collected periodically from approximately 6,500 identical establishments in 69 urban areas. Of these, some 700 establishments are located in seven urban areas of the Pacific region. The information concerning industry wage trends for the region and for specific cities was derived from a special anslysis of data collected in these national surveys.

610

1