XI. Service Incomes in Organized Industry
The figures cited in this chapter are far from conclusive. They are, in many cases, woefully incomplete. They cover only a part of the industries in which men and women are gainfully employed. The most surprising thing about the figures is their uniformity. Collected by different organizations, and under essentially varied conditions, the product of general state and federal inquiry and of specific individual wage investigations, the figures agree marvelously. Wages in the west are generally higher than wages in the east.[1] Throughout the country lying east of the Rocky Mountains, and in the industrial sections lying north of the Mason and Dixon Line, the facts appear to be unquestionable and unquestioned. Subsequent investigation will reveal minor variations, but the large wage facts will still stand as they do in these summaries.
A comparatively small percentage of the persons gainfully employed in modern organized industry are on a salary basis. Of those so classified, the great proportion are foremen, assistant superintendents and managers, and clerks, whose salaries, for the most part, differ little from the salaries of the better-paid wage-earners. A small proportion of them are paid more than $1,000 per year, and a vanishing number receive more than $1,500. The vast majority of those gainfully employed in organized industry, certainly 95 per cent., are paid a wage or its equivalent. The figures showing that wage appear in the following brief summary:
Table X
Compensation Rates for Males in Certain Groups of Occupations
| Per Cent, of Males Receiving Wage Rates per Year of Less Than | ||||||
| $250 | $500 | $750 | $1,000 | $1,250 | $1,500 | |
| Bell Telephone System Leading Occupations (1908) | . . . . | 5 | 40 | 80 | . . . . | 99 |
| Mercantile establishments, California (1911-12) | . . . . | 10 | 30 | 55 | . . . . | . . . . |
| Iron and steel, United States (1910) | . . . . | 10 | 60 | 85 | . . . . | 97 |
| Textiles (1910-12) | . . . . | 60 | 90 | 95 | . . . . | . . . . |
| Miscellaneous (1910-11) | . . . . | 30 | 60 | 90 | . . . . | 98 |
| Manufacturing: | ||||||
| Massachusetts (1910) | 1 | 34 | 71 | 91 | . . . . | . . . . |
| New Jersey (1911) | 2 | 36 | 71 | 89 | . . . . | . . . . |
| Kansas (1909) | 2 | 26 | 70 | 91 | . . . . | . . . . |
| Wisconsin (1909) | 2 | 32 | 77 | 94 | . . . . | 99 |
| Oklahoma (1911) | 1 | 17 | 68 | 90 | . . . . | . . . . |
| California (1911) | 2 | 7 | 30 | 63 | . . . . | . . . . |
| Census (1905) | 8 | 47 | 79 | 94 | . . . . | . . . . |
The conclusions from these figures are inevitable. The great majority (almost nine tenths) of the adult males receive wage rates of $1,000 per year, or less. An equal proportion of females receive less than $750.
- ↑ "Wages in the United States," op. cit., Chapter 8.
