The struggle between workers and managers in the workplace played out vividly in the Pennsylvania coal mines. Occupations included are limited before 1916. Mostly covers manufacturing industries (tobacco was prominent), but there is some data for women who worked in mercantile stores, 5-and10-cent stores, and in laundries. Work clothes, work shirts, dress shirts, dress pants, trousers, vests, suits, dress gloves, overcoats, winter coats, fur caps and collars, neck ties, belts and suspenders, caps and hats, nightwear, socks, shoes, boots, pocket knives, pocket watches, toupes, razors, smoking pipes. Source: Lists minimum and maximum daily wages for male and female workers. Source: BLS. Source: page 13 in. College professor salaries, 1928 (Source: AAUP report). Coal mine owners and superintendents rarely went underground. Compensationby job titlefor New York City, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, San Francisco and more cities. how much did coal miners get paid in the 1950s. This article reprinted from a January 1923 edition of, This source quotes medians (the mid-point, with 50% falling below the line), first quartiles (25% falling below) and third quartiles (75% falling below). Prices are shown in Japanese yen. Besides know-how, the miners depended upon instinct and luck. Girl's: Safety sign in eight languages, about 1910. The correct use of explosives depended on the miners skill and knowledge of how to drill, how much powder to use, and how to damp a charge properly. First, the men had topush an empty coal car up wooden rails that they had installed on their own time. Wages shown in litas, and US dollars in parentheses. Veteran colliers knew competitive individualism bred greed, hostility, thievery, and a disregard for mine safety. After checking in, they climbed up a steep trail from the office to the portal of a mine. Source: BLS. Shows average dollar amount spent annually in categories such as food, clothing, maintenance of health, personal goods, furniture and more. For best detail, see the full chapters on. Managers concentrated on business decisions, such as arranging transportation and selling their product. 25-38. Includes the states of RI, NJ, OH, DE, OK, MO, GA, TN, AR, KY, SC, AL and MS. Some stopped the cars by jamming pieces of wood into the spokes. Manufacturing wages -- SEE box further below. Arthur Lewis. Coal miner Bill Keating composed the ballad Down, Down, Down to break my loneliness and to show my mule I was in a friendly mood., President John L. Lewis, United Mine Workers, convention badge, 1936. Regardless of what their state government might or might not do to protect them, the miners of West Virginia had to rely on themselves and their buddies, rather than on company fire bosses and state mine inspectors, whose numbers were few and whose visits were infrequent. The veteran miners, who prided themselves on their toughness, taught the youngest ones how to act like men, how to ignore the pain, and how to laugh away their fears. Wages are shown in Spanish pesetas. Watch the rocks, theyre falling daily, Includes breakouts for those who lived with the family and those who did not. Source: BLS Monthly Labor Review, July 1930. Source: BLS. Tax covers both land and buildings. Under other circumstances, mine tops fell without warning. In the hand-loading era, an underground miners workplace, usually called a room, was only as high as the coal seam. Gasoline cost an average21.7 per gallon in 1929. Source: BLS. Shows by county the price of undeveloped land, plow land and farm land. Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, No. A standard tune in miners lore began with lyric, Youve been docked and docked again, boys / Youve been loading two for one, and asked what the miner had to show for working so hard. Infant's: Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. Source: BLS, Shows the average daily wages of manual work occupations in Barcelona, Spain. Montgomery Ward catalog shows prices of radios and radio supplies on 60+ pages. Shows dollar amount and % of total budget spent on various categories of goods and services, broken out by urban/rural families. After a temporary escape to attend grammar school, it was the world he reentered in 1900 as an eighteen-year-old man willing and able to load coal for a miners pay. This bibliography lists reports that show income, budgets, consumer expenditures, etc. Source: Extensive article provides wage detail by occupation and city. Handkerchiefs, slippers, watches, umbrellas, hair brushes and combs, Christmas decorations. Source: BLS, Shows the average daily or monthly wages for various occupations in 5 different cities in Brazil. A Latvian immigrant and devout member of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Old Believers, Michael Simon wore this cross as he labored in Pennsylvania coal mines. Boys learned the mining craft from their fathers and later passed this knowledge on to their own sons. Still he ventures to be brave. Source: BLS. Describes the labor policy of Great Britain in the 1920's and throughout the rest of the early 20th century. Earnings and prices are shown in Swiss francs. A mail order catalog for the Fall/Winter season, 1920-1921. Study showed how much a family of five would need to live in Washington DC in 1920. In some cases, when word came around that a miner had been scolded or punished by a boss, workers would gather on a pile of slate to talk about the incident, and the bolder ones with a manly bearing toward the boss would speak up for their fellow worker. Wages are listed in Mexican currency with exchange rate for calculating amounts in U.S. dollars. Some occupations covered include telephone operators, waitresses, hotel maids, chambermaids, elevator girls, laundry workers, retail clerks, and factory workers in the wood working industry. Source: BLS, Shows the average wage rates for 19 different occupations in Hamburg, Germany. Source:Federal Reserve Bank of Saint Louis. Priced by the single unit. Beds and mattresses, bedroom furniture, pillows, bedding. Shows wage rates for engineers, conductors, passenger baggage men, coal passers, firemen, switch tenders, hostlers, signalmen, station agents, telegraphers, machinists, car cleaners, and more. Source: the Historian of the U.S. Source: BLS, Shows the average price of foodstuffs and other common goods in the federal district of Mexico. NOTE: Forhouseholdincome data for 1929, we recommend a1934 Brookings Institution report titled America's Capacity to Consume. The region's first coal miners primarily were African Americans, both enslaved and free. The legislature rejected all proposals for reform, however. Wages are shown in contemporary US dollars. Table 41 in this source shows the average salary for all teachers in elementary and secondary schools in New York state, not including NYC. Source: For each college, this table shows tuition for residents and non-residents by course of study. Compares 1927 and 1913 earnings. 514. Shows the income of each member of a Zurich household and the amount that household spent on various necessities like food, clothing, rent, etc. Self-respecting craftsmen were even known to stop working when a foreman came by to inspect their room. Shows the average weekly and hourly wages of different occupations in the Missouri shoe industry between 1913-1922. Arranged by occupation and then by city and year. Includes breakouts by state, source of income, and more. Wages are shown in Spanish pesetas. Shows the average monthly wages of multiple occupation in the Alaskan fishing industry. Every workday a panel of miners, ranging from fourteen to twenty-eight men, passed through a main entry and then turneddown a side entry. Kitchen: Salary data for judges inNY, PA, NJ and CT. Includes a table showing. Source: BLS, Shows the average daily wages for various occupations in 6 different industries in Japan. Shows compensation for individualjudgeson the U.S. Supreme Court, circuit courts and district courts. Shows the changes in wages of united Illinois coal miners following a labor agreement. Source: BLS. Ukrainian immigrant Nick Gurski began working in the Boone County coal mines in the 1920s. ), carriages, cribs, high chairs, etc. Heed no operators tale! The following two tables shows the average daily earnings of industrial and building workers by occupation as well as in Moscow, Leningrad, and the Ural mountain region. Tomorrow night at 9pm PBSs American Experience will broadcast The Mine Wars, based on the book. Even the most skilled miners could not detect the presence of kettle bottoms, the petrified remains of huge ancient tree trunks that could plunge through the roofs and crush workers. Table 679 of this 1923 USDA Yearbook tells how much U.S. farmers paid for farm tools and implements, work gloves, shirts and shoes, shotguns, tobacco, wagons, building materials such as nails and shingles, and household items such as dishes and fruit jars, washtubs and buckets in 1909, 1914-1922. Government Documents Department, Ellis Library Shows price list of one California retailer. See table 164 for average annual wage. Source: Shows the average hourly wage of a variety of jobs both in and outside of Paris. Coal operators often provided services like company stores. Source: Covers elementary schools and junior high schools in American cities with populations of 2,500 or more. By the 1940s, the United Mine Workers union had established better wages and somewhat safer conditions for miners, though a contentious relationship between workers and bosses persisted. With industrialization, workers lost control of when to start, eat, and end their day. Published 1921. Income statistics of full time professional women were published in study by the Association of Business and Professional Women. Shows the "living wage" per week for different metropolitan areas of Australia. BookTok is Good, Actually: On the Undersung Joys of a Vast and Multifarious Platform, Seven Crime Novels Centered Around Musicians Out in 2023, Arlington Road: The Conspiracy Thriller That Foresaw the Spread of Far-Right Extremism in America, If you want to laugh, watch this Mitchell and Webb sketch about inviting Shaggy and Scooby Doo to a party, Uncrackable: 5 Films Featuring Devilishly Difficult Heists. Shows starting salary and increases granted based on marital status and number of children. It may be necessary to read the chapters pertaining to the country, but you can find the actual minimum wages in the discussion. Starts on p. 44. Most trapper boys learned how to overcome their fears by watching and listening to the colliers who went underground with them. This earlier catastrophe outraged Mother Jones, who spoke of it often on her organizing campaign that year, and it had triggered public pressure to improve the states mine safety laws. Living room: But to those who suffered alone in silence, the chorus offered hope and strength: Union miners, stand together! Between 1880 and 1920, southern West Virginias population grew from 93,000 to 446,000, due almost entirely to the coal industry. An open flame provided the only light, and the cloth cap barely kept lamp soot away. Coal diggers gave up some of their hard-earned pay to aid fellow miners when they were sick or injured, and when a mine exploded, they risked their lives to rescue the survivors trapped inside. by OCCUPATION Taken from the 1921 U.S. Department of Agriculture Yearbook, starting on page 804. 294-295. Totals are shown in Canadian dollars. Then, with their lamps casting a dim yellow light on the dark hillside, the men and boys disappeared one by one into the hole, like ants entering a colony. Boys younger than 12 often worked beside their fathers underground because, in many communities, it was the only paying job available. As a rule he is paid so much per car, and a definite number of cars constitute a day's workthe number varying in different minesaveraging from five to seven, equaling from twelve to fifteen tons of coal. Source: BLS. Telephones, radios, cameras, kitchen ranges, home electric appliances, record players, music records, sewing machines, fabrics, clothes washers, laundry supplies, vacuum sweepers. By 1850, approximately half of Kanawha Countys slaves worked in the salt industrymany mined coal to fuel the furnaces. Source: BLS, Shows the average retail prices of staple foodstuffs in Madrid, Spain. Source: BLS, Shows the minimum hourly wages of various occupations in Brussels. Source: BLS Monthly Labor Review (July 1930). Prices are shown in Hungarian crowns. Prices shown in marks. A strong, skilled coal loader might fill five or more cars in a day. Conversely, a dollar earned in 1928 had the same buying power as abut $15 in the year 2020. Shows breakouts for automobile manufacture, cigar making, boots/shoe making, men's clothing, iron/steel and more. During the 1910s and 1920s, minimum wage laws were adopted by a handful of states and generally applied only to women and children. Source: Shows the earnings per hour and week for sawmill workers over a 20 year period. Source: 1934 Statistical Abstract of the United States. Managers worried about competition, costs, and controlling workers who spoke multiple languages and labored out of view. Source: BLS, Shows the hourly wages for men and women in Finnish unions. Engineers working for Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Co. used this model to visualize the coal seams and design their mines. It is not yet available to read online; check your local library for a printed copy. After the top fell, they returned to break and load the fallen coal before another layer of the top came crashing down with a tremendous roar. Its an era of company town labor we are not likely to see return as automation and renewable energy continue to render these kinds of occupations obsolete. Email: concannonm@missouri.edu Wages are shown in French francs. Lists single-unit prices for barbital, benzoyl peroxide, benzocaine, aspirin, quinoline, and more, showing proprietary and coined drug names. Furniture, bookcases, carpets and rugs, curtains, hanging lamps, lightbulbs, table and floor lamps, clocks. HEALTH CARE Source: U.S. Bureau of Education. Shows the average daily wages Greek workers were receiving in metal mines, lignite mines, smelting and refining plants, and quarries. Includes both land and buildings. Without a match he walked, hands held in front of his body, until, by chance, someone found him and gave him a light. Source: Teachers' salaries and salary trends in 1923. Covers more than 1,200 cities. In the late 1800s mining was rough physical labor. The laborer's work is often made difficult by the water and rock which are found' in large quantities in coal veins. (Click image for detail), Marie Concannon, Government Information Librarian See quartile, "Women in Alabama industries: a study of hours, wages and working conditions," Women's Bureau Bulletin #34 (. Shows the average daily wages of Japanese and Chinese workers in various occupations for the South Manchuria Railway Co. Wages are shown in both contemporary yen and US dollars. Source: BLS Monthly Labor Review (June 1931), Shows the average hours and daily wages of various workers in quarries, sawmills, and many other industries throughout Virginia. This source lists actual salaries paid to administrators in various lines of business. by STATE Source: "Income of Lawyers, 1929-1948" in the August 1949 issue of. Describes the labor policy of Mexico in the 1920's and throughout the rest of the early 20th century. Few words meant more to mine workers than manliness, a quality that connoted dignity, respectability, defiant egalitarianism, and patriarchal male supremacy, in the words of historian David Montgomery. Wages are shown in German marks. As a novice, Keeney learned the colliers trade from older craftsmenthe skills of cutting the face, setting the charges, and loading the coal without wrenching his back or crippling himself. Police department personnel salaries and wages. Chart shows median wages of women employed in Philadelphia households as chambermaids, cleaners, cooks, waitresses, laundress, seamstress, and children's nurses (nannies.) Expressed in pounds, shillings, and pence. "A good hotel room costs only $4-5 per day while a hospital charges $6 and $7." Source: U.S. Dept. Wages are shown in Danish ore. The deal, brokered by. Source: Shows wages by occupation in Belfast, Cork, Glasgow, Dundee, Cardiff, London, Manchester and more. 59-71. Discussion covers the history of minimum wage legislation in Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Canada, South Africa, Mexico, France, Norway, Argentina, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Uruguay, Hungary, Poland, Italy, and Rumania (Romania) up to 1928. Taken from Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, No. Report published in 1925 mainly covers wages in manufacturing industries. See data considerations for explanation. Shows data for Washington DC, Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroitand otheradditional cities on pages5-9. Under these terms, a hard worker could earn $2.00 for ten to twelve hours of labor, if the work was steady. Data is separated by sex and age. asked the Secretary of State for Employment whether he will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT as 89W detailed information as may be readily available showing the numbers and groupings of employees in the coal mines working at the surface and face, respectively, whose basic rates of pay on 1st November 1973 were below the national average wage of 42 per week ; and how far . Smoke from explosions of black powder,the reek of oil lamps, and the pervading coal dust made breathable air something of an obsession with the miner, one miner recalled. Shows the daily wages for 11 different occupations in Parahyba, Brazil. Report published in 1923 tells wages by race and by industry. Lists annual pay for individuals occupying administrative and supervisory positions in the executive and judicial branches. Source: BLS Bulletin no. Lists the price of bricks, flooring, framing lumber, rough boards, Portland cement, roofing material, house paint and more. From. Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, No. In the words of the popular song Miners Lifeguard, written by a miner from Oak Hill, West Virginia: A miners life is like a sailors, Shows wages for common and semi-skilled workers in manufacturing and construction industries, in baking, agriculture, metal and printing trades. Even in a good week, there was unpaid work to perform: propping up newly opened rooms with wooden posts, laying track to his room, and lowering the floor of the main tunnel so loaded coal cars could pass through. Eventually, his sons and grandsons also worked in the mines. Table 26 shows wages for laborers with board for every year from 1780-1937; the, In the 1920s, people could sell their blood to hospitals for$35-50 perquart. Must use "search in this text" feature to navigate. Source: Source: BLS Handbook of Labor Statistics, 1931 edition. Each table is for a different New Zealand city. Source: BLS Monthly Labor Review (September 1932). Tells cost of public transportation and railway fares as well. Covers New York City, New Jersey towns, Fall River MA, Cleveland, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco and Portland OR. Shows average value of mortgaged homes, average debt remaining on the mortgages and average interest paid on mortgages annually, for 68 cities of 100,000 or more population. Table shows average tax by acre for each state in 1929. 8836. Managements steam whistle now set the times. in FOREIGN COUNTRIES, FOOD Use the following hyperlinks to see values for AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY. Source: Table shows 52 years of time-series prices on individual foods, such as. Shows the average weekly wages of various occupations in 8 different industries in Budapest. Details the prices of appliances, furniture, and more household items on pp. From, Earnings forveterinarians with governmentjobs, in scientific labs, in sales, or working as. Wages of certain women in the District of Columbia. Source: BLS, Shows the average retail prices of food, clothing, and fuel prices in Shanghai. Wages are shown in Italian lire. Source: U.S. Congressional Serial Set Vol. Owners claimed property rights and managerial entitlements over the workplace. for rural households in the U.S. and selected foreign countries. Source: Median wages for butlers, chauffeurs, gardeners, furnace men and "house men" employed to work in private households in Philadelphia in the late 1920s. Shows mining wages in Alabama, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Details the price of clothing for men, women, boys and girls on pp. Retreat mining was a risky business, but at least the miners engineered these cave-ins. by SEX White familiesspent an average $103.71/yearon medical care around 1928-1931. Prices are shown in contemporary US dollars. Prices are shown in Spanish pesetas. Shows the wages of Japanese mining workers by gender and age. One-page table shows average charges for residential electricity each year from 1924-1934, for cities over 50,000 in population. Retreat mining required the rapid destruction of these pillars, each containing tons of valuable coal, before the mine collapsed. Retail prices for brick, cement, lumber of various kinds, window glass, shingles, nails and more. Wages for workers engaged in the manufacture of iron and steel goods, machinery, railway rolling stock, boilers, vehicles, aircraft, electrical apparatus, scientific instruments and more. Source: BLS, Shows the daily wages of workers in the glass factories of northern France. Wiki User. COST OF LIVING Other enslaved African Americans escaped from the salt works to Ohio, a free state only 60 miles away. The failure of a mine boss to dampen the coal dust was the reason the Red Ash mine blew up in 1905, killing thirteen men and boys on Fire Creek. Details the price of various building materials on pp. April 26, 1942. Iowa farm houses averaged around 8 rooms and had an average value of $3,043. HOUSING, FARMS and UTILITIES They designed complex ventilation systems with fans and interior doors to keep dangerous gases from causing explosions. Mentions the wages paid to both skilled and unskilled workers in francs. "75 Years of American Finance: A Graphic Presentation 1861-1935" In 1900 almost 2 percent of Americans were coal miners. The mine foreman was legally responsible for safety. Source: Chicago Commission on Race Relations report. Mr. Source: Appendix in. Wages are shown in Sweden kronor. The pit closures the miners had fought so hard to prevent began in earnest. Source: BLS, Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, No. Stealing another mans coal was considered a terrible crime. A thief could commit this offense easily, simply by removing one miners brass check from his coal car and replacing it with his own; but the miners often detected this kind of trickery and banded together to demand the thiefs termination. Source: Describes the labor policy of Australia in the 1920's and throughout the rest of the early 20th century. Pennsylvania's investment in anthracite iron paid dividends for the industrial economy of the state and proved that coal could be adapted to a number of industrial pursuits. Source: BLS, Shows the retail prices of foodstuffs and other staple goods in the Mexican capital. Source: BLS, The explanation states: "real wage rates have been computed by the Statistical Office on the basis of the official German cost-of-living index. Wages are shown in contemporary U.S. dollars. Boys labored inside, sorting coal by size and removing rock. Washington, D.C. Email powered by MailChimp (Privacy Policy & Terms of Use), The American Twins, Harpers Weekly, 1874, African American History Curatorial Collective. Under these terms, a hard worker could earn $2.00 for ten to twelve hours of labor, if the work was steady. There is also a table showing, Shows the value of multiple currencies in US dollars in the years of. Scroll forward and back to see the various cities for which average food prices are available. Constitution Avenue, NW Miners would lie on their backs and use a pick to undercut the coal. A man sometimes had to get down on his hands and knees, with his left shoulder, well padded, against the car, bracing himself with his toes against the ties and the dirt of the floor, wrote a former miner, while his partner controlled the brakes to keep the car from rolling back on the pusher if he slipped or grew tired. Back injuries, broken legs, and severed feet and fingers were common. Source: This table provides average yearly wages per industry or trade type, including transportation, education and agriculture, among others. It was a dreadful experience Booker T. Washington never forgot. Part of a section on Negro women's wages. Source: BLS Monthly labor review, Apr 1926, Shows the average retail prices of various foodstuffs throughout Switzerland. Shows police department salaries for cities over 100,000 population. Taking a mine car out of turnconstituted another grave offense. Wages are shown in Greek drachmas. Source: BLS, Shows the average pay for a 48 hour week throughout 5 different industries in Milan. Covers more than 1,200 cities. The coal industry required more labor than southern West Virginia could supply. Prices are shown in Latvian rubles. Wages are shown in Japanese yen. Source: BLS Monthly Labor Review, March 1932, The "Service Industries" chapter in this source breaks out wages paid to workers in hospitals, hotels, bowling alleys, theaters, parks, churches, country clubs, athletic clubs and yacht clubs, advertising agencies, banks, laundries, schools/colleges, and restaurants (making no distinction between waiters, cooks or bus boys). Shows salaries at the state, county and city levels. They provided their own equipment and often hired assistants; managers extended credit for supplies like dynamite. Wages shown in 1930 US dollars. Shows the average retail prices of staple foodstuffs in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Teacher salaries for. Shows wages by occupation grouped by industries, with breakouts for males and females. Issues of Telephone engineer & management detail rates for telephone service in many states. See list of the most common occupations for women in 1910 and 1920 (source: Census Bureau). Shows the average daily wages paid to masons, electricians, bricklayers, bakers, blacksmiths and more. Keep your hand upon the dollar, An experienced miner would often work calmly under conditions that would terrify a novice, wrote a veteran of the bituminous mines. Typically, workers could get an advance on pay, in company-issued paper currency, called scrip, or tokens to buy goods. Shows average public employee pay for each state. Shows average value for farm land and buildings from 1850-1982. Data available for additional years inMissouri Farm Census by Counties, Missouri State Dept of Agriculture. Salary data for teachers, principals and school administrators in New York City, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Detroit, St. Louis, Chicago and Kansas City. Workers, Kohinoor mine, Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, 1884, Managers, Kohinoor mine, Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, 1884. Working in coal mines is dangerous miners have to deal with toxic . There was little prospect then that coal would be in demand as it is today or that the daily wage of miners would be multiplied 8 to 10 times by 1974. Wages are shown in both Hungarian gold crowns and contemporary U.S. dollars. Click for more info about the kind of home a family earning less than $2,500 annually could buy in 1928. In 1907, West Virginia appointed John Nugent as superintendent of immigration. Shows the average daily wages of workers in various industries in Riga as well as other parts of Latvia. Shows salaries for sevenoccupations inpolice departments of 25American cities. Salt operators eventually hired more white or free-black laborers due to the risk of investing money in bondsmen, who frequently were killed or injured in the mines. Source: U.S. BLS. Source: Historical chart shows salaries of members of the U.S. Congress, along with dates of enactment and statutory authority for each pay increase. Compares average retail prices for grocery items in independent stores and in chain stores. Source: The cost of living among wage-earners, Cincinnati OH, pp. Coal miners homemade prosthetic leg, about 1950. Shows the average weekly earnings by industry and occupation. Shows the hourly and weekly wages for 12 principal industries throughout Germany.