Prices and Wages by Decade: 1870-1879

Lists wages for apothecaries, book binders, bakers, barbers, brick makers, cooks, dressmakers, fishermen, florists, gardeners, grave diggers, hatters, jewelers, leather tanners, locksmiths, nurses, plumbers, watch makers, distillery workers, ship builders, seamen, deck hands, shepherds, tailors, waiters, factory workers making carriages, pianos and organs and much more than can be listed here. Wages for jobs in cotton mills, woolen mills and paper mills, iron foundries and machine shops which could include carpenters, engineers, blacksmiths, firemen as well as spinners, dyers, etc. Lists wages by state and territory for certain mechanical occupations. Wage tables extend from p. 201-223 so be sure to scroll forward in the volume. Source: Information for Immigrants, published 1871.

Very simple table compares average wages in the US, Great Britain, Paris France and Liege Belgium for each year from 1870-1898.

Lists daily wages in dollars for many occupations including blacksmiths, bricklayers, cabinet makers, carpenters, railroad conductors, railroad engineers, street laborers, machinists, house painters, stone masons, teamsters, plumbers, and more, in the U.S. cities of Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Richmond, St. Louis, St. Paul and San Francisco. The last column provides an average across all of these cities. Wage data tables for cities in Great Britain, France and Belgium begin on page 683. Source: Bulletin of the United States Department of Labor, no. 18, published September 1898.

Tables 11-13 on pages 29-31 show average wages with and without board. Table 17 shows average wages per day without board, and Table 18 shows the daily wages with board.

Lists average monthly earnings with board, by geographic divisions. Data for years: 1818, 1826, 1830, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1890, 1909, 1919, 1929, 1940, 1948. Read the explanation and historical context for this table here.

This source shows the national average for daily and monthly wages of hired farm labor, with board or without, at harvest or at other times.

Published in 1886 as part of the 10th U.S. Census. Also printed in Serial Set Vol. 2150.

Extensive tables show average wages paid each year for a variety of occupations, reported by state and sometimes by city, often broken out by sex, in the following industries:

• Building trades, 1840-1900
  Listed wages for bricklayers, carpenters, electricians, stationary engineers, stationary firemen, hod carriers, building laborers, marble cutters, stone masons, painters, plasterers, plumbers, stone cutters, granite cutters and tile layers.
• Clothing manufacture, 1851-1898
  Listed wages for dressmakers and sewing machine operators
• Farm labor, 1841-1899
  For further time series data, see USDA data showing farm labor wages from 1866-1920.
• Glass and clay products, 1841-1898
  Listed wages for glass blowers, potters, kiln placers and turners.
• Iron and steel workers, 1840-1899
  Listed wages for furnace keepers for pig-iron blast furnaces and other jobs in iron and steel.
• Laborers, 1840-1900
• Leather products, 1855-1900
  Listed wages for shoemakers, leather cutters, stitchers, vampers, lasters and tanners.
  
• Metal trades other than iron or steel, 1840-1900
  Listed wages for blacksmiths in railroad shops, machine shops and other places, boiler makers in foundries and machine shops, core makers, horseshoers, foundry laborers, lathe hands, machinists, millwrights in flour mills and other places, iron molders, pattern makers, tool and die makers.
• Mining -- Coal mine and iron mine industries, 1840-1900
  Wages for coal mine drivers, loaders, coal miners, iron miners, drilling machine operators, timbermen for the mines
• Printing and publishing, 1842-1900
  Wages for bookbinders, press feeders, proof readers, compositors for newspapers and other shops, pressmen (operators of the printing press), stereotypers
• Textiles - Cloth manufacture, 1842-1900
  Wages for doffers, drawing frame tenders, cotton dyers, loom fixers, cotton spinners, cotton weavers
• Textiles - Hosiery and underwear manufacture, 1842-1900
  Wages for knitters of hosiery and underwear, weavers and winders of silk goods, dressers and dyers of woolen and worsted goods, loom fixers, spinners, wool sorters
• Tobacco product manufacture, 1860-1900
  Wages for cigar makers, tobacco stemmers and strippers
• Transportation industry wages, 1840-1900
  Wages for railroad brakemen, conductors for passenger railroads, conductors for freight railroads, locomotive engineers and firemen, longshoremen, 1-horse teamsters, 2-horse teamsters and teamsters non-specified.
• Woodworking trades, 1845-1900
  Wages for cabinet makers, coopers, sawyers, loggers, lumber laborers, woodworkers

Historical chart shows salaries of members of the U.S. Congress, along with dates of enactment and statutory authority for each pay increase.

The best source for school teacher wages are state government publications. If you do not see the state/year you are looking for, do not hesitate to contact us.

• California average statewide teacher wages, 1871, 1872 and 1873
• California teacher wages by sex by county, 1872 and 1873
In 1872, women were earning as low as $40 per month in one county, whereas men were averaging $168 in another county.

Detailed breakouts by occupation, without board. Also tells the number of hours per week typically worked.

Shows average weekly wages for 1860, 1872, 1878, 1881 and 1897 for hundreds of detailed occupations. This is an extensive table, scroll forward to see it all. Source: Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor 28th annual report.

This report from the Missouri Immigration Society showed average wages paid to bookkeepers, bartenders, teamsters, laborers, plasterers, painters, carpenters, bricklayers, stone masons, dry goods clerks, clothing house clerks, grocery clerks and drug store clerks. Published in 1880, it probably drew from 1870s data. This is not a government document.

This index to California state government publications shows where one can find wages for various occupations such as teachers (1850s-1880s), railroad employees (1870s-1880s), farm workers (1890s), miners and lumbermen (1902), sailors (1904) and more.

This series of Municipal Year Books from New Haven, Connecticut, show salaries for police, firemen, school teachers, principals, building inspectors, clerks and other jobs working for city government.

Shows weekly pay and hours worked per day for women employed as tailoresses, seamstresses, operators, cloak makers, dressmakers, lace makers, hat makers, shoe fitters, glove sewers, and more. These figures were collected by a journalist and published in the New York Tribune on Feb 26, 1870 and later quoted in a federal report.

Reports monthly wages paid to individual, unnamed male and female employees in a variety of jobs at selected establishments in the northeast U.S. Industries covered: agricultural implement manufacture (MA), ale, beer and porter (NY), book and newspaper publishers (CT, NY, MD), building trades (CT, MD, MA, NJ, NY, PA, RI), railroad car and ship building (DE), wagon and carriage manufacture (NY), city public works (MA, NY, PA) and cotton milling (MA). Source: 1893 report of the U.S. Congressional Committee on Finance titled "Wholesale prices, wages and transportation."

This is an index to topics covered in all labor statistics bureaus, both state and federal and even some foreign countries. There are ten pages of entries under "Wages" listing wages shown in state and federal reports. Find report abbreviations spelled out here. The strategy for using this source is to identify a report you want to track down and then look for it in Hathi Trust's online digital library. Contact us if you would like assistance with this.

Brief 30-page booklet reviews overall wage trends from 1800-1899. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Staff Paper #2.

Provides explanations and charts to help users calculate the current value of historic dollar amounts. Source: Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Association, Vol. 101 #2. Source

Website provides online calculators, guides and tutorials to help researchers understand the modern value of historic money in America, Australia, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Table at bottom of page 531 compares the price of bread, meat and butter, as well as the rent for a laborer's cottage and rent of cultivated land per acre. Includes farm labor wages as well. All amounts expressed in shillings.

Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor, No. 87, Volume XX. Published March 1910.

Prices of food products (meat, vegetables, dairy), tobacco, soap, candles, salt, wine, rum, whiskey, brandy, and more. Prices expressed in pounds, shillings and pence. Source: 1873 Victorian year-book, an Australian government publication.

Source: 1888-1889 Victoria year-book, an Australian government publication.

Tells how much salt one rupee could buy in the various districts and provinces in India in each year from 1861-1890. The quantity of salt is given in seers. 80 tolahs = 1 seer.