EXHIBIT S-245 CHART 16.-Real hourly earnings and weekly hours worked, employees of United States Steel Corp. and subsidiaries 1 Average hourly earnings adjusted for cost of living (BLS Consumers' Price Index). Source: Corporation records and Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumers' Price Index. Among the principal beneficiaries of the pursuit of profit through tool-providing investment of savings have been the employees. They have benefited in terms of availability of jobs in building and operating the tools, in terms of lessened effort, in terms of decreased hours of work, in terms of increased safety while at work and in terms of more and better goods to be bought with the fruits of an hour's labor-that is, in an increasing real wage. This fact is well illustrated by the records of United States Steel. In 1913 the employees received hourly earnings equivalent to $0.60 in dollars of average buying power prevailing in the year 1949. These real earnings have steadily increased, with but one interruption of significance in 1921-23, until in 1949 they amounted to $1.78. In the same span of time the weekly hours of labor declined from 69 to 38 in 1948-a year of uninterrupted production—and to 34 in the strike-affected year of 1949. 1929 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 1950 U. S. STEEL CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARIES * PRELIMINARY INDEX USS There are three indexes which are in general use for measuring the change in steel prices. Both Iron Age and Steel magazines prepare an index of base prices of certain steel products with fixed weights, so that product mix is not an important factor. The Bureau of Labor Statistics index includes iron ore, pig iron, and scrap, as well as cans, hardware, and numerous other items manufactured from steel which United States Steel does not produce or sell. The latter index does reflect extras and deductions to base prices on certain steel products. In spite of these differences, all three indexes indicate the same general movement in prices, but do not agree on the extent of such changes. EXHIBIT S-247 CHART 18.-Wage rates versus steel prices, United States Steel Corp. and subsidiaries |