Library Guides: Prices and Wages by Decade: 1930-1939

Wages in the United States, 1930-1939

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WAGES -- GENERAL SOURCES (all occupations and worker types)

Federal Minimum Wage chart, 1938-2009
Chart from the U.S. Dept of Labor shows the first federal minimum wage law enacted in 1938 (25 cents), and all subsequent increases through 2009.
Minimum wage rates for teachers, by state and race
By the late 1930s, twenty states had minimum wage laws for teachers. See greater detail for each state in the section Abstracts of minimum salary laws starting on page 23 .
Common laborers employed by cities - 1935
Shows starting wage data broken out by states. Source: U.S. BLS Bulletin No. 627.
Common labor starting wage rates, 1931-1934
Also breaks out the wage data by industry and geographic region.
Common labor starting wage rates - 1935
Scroll through this chapter to see numerous tables with averages and breakdowns by industry and by region.
Union wages and hours by U.S. city, 1929-1930
Covers a wide variety of occupations, such as railroad sleeping car conductors, boat captains, music engravers and musicians, hatters, actors, barbers, turkish bath attendants, artists, office workers, store clerks, enbalmers and many more. Use the table of contents to find the page number.
Wages, hours and earnings by occupation and sex, 1928-1934
Hundreds of pages detailing the average wages, number of hours worked, and average earnings by occupation, broken out by gender and sometimes by location. Source: Handbook of Labor Statistics, 1936 edition.
Wages, hours and earnings by occupation and sex, 1935-1940
Hundreds of pages detailing the wages for a great number of occupations such as firemen, policemen, fishermen, enlisted military (Army and Navy), office workers, accountants, chiropractors, dentists, engineers, lawyers, librarians, nurses, physicians, school employees, factory workers and more. Source: Handbook of Labor Statistics, 1941 edition.
Congressional salaries, 1789-present
Historical chart shows salaries of members of the U.S. Congress, along with dates of enactment and statutory authority for each pay increase.
Federal employee salaries by occupation - 1938
Tables show average wages for 117 occupational groups employed in the federal government, including architects, librarians, entomologists, chemists, accountants, postmasters, cooks, supply clerks, kitchen workers, electricians and more. Tables span pages 83-85 in this source, the Jan 1941 issue of Monthly Labor Review.
Farmers' earnings by state, 1934-1935
Although farm owners don't earn wages, they did have earnings through sale of farm products. See average prices received by farmers for crops, by state and average prices paid for livestock in Chicago, Kansas City and Omaha. Source: USDA Crops and Markets.
Wages and hours before and after World War I
Compares pre- and post-WWI wages, union rates, farm wage rates, hours of work, and average weekly earnings by industry. Compares the years 1914-23 with 1939-44.
Wage chronologies for selected major companies
Lists of monitored changes in wage rates in selected U.S. companies such as General Motors and Chrysler Corp. Covers the late 1930s through the 1970s.

WAGES by RACE

Negro workers, weekly earnings in 1930 and 1936
Source: The Urban Negro Worker in the United States, 1925-1936, published by the federal government as a WPA project.
Wage and salary income by race, 1939-1960
The source Economic Situation of Negroes in the United States compares median wages and salary income for white race and non-white races, with breakouts by sex. Provides data for the years 1939, 1947, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960. The preface states that "Negroes constitute more than 95% of the non-white residents of the U.S."
Negro teacher wages in AL, MD and NC - 1930s
See detail for the states of Alabama, Maryland and North Carolina.

Wages by Occupation / Industry, 1930-1939

Agriculture - Farm workers' wages and income - 1909 to 1938
Farm wage rates are broken out by year and geographic location. Wages for farm workers are compared to that of factory workers. Article starts on page 59 of the BLS Monthly Labor Review, July 1939 issue.
Agriculture - Farm labor wages 1866-1935
Average yearly wage, reported with and without board (meals). Taken from the 1936 Statistical Abstract of the United States.
Agriculture - Farm Labor wages, 1930-1939
The monthly USDA periodical Farm Labor showed farm labor wages with and without room and board, and broken out by geography.
Air transportation workers - Wages, 1931
Wages and earnings for pilots, co-pilots and ground personnel engaged in passenger service or mail delivery. Crop dusters, sight-seeing tour operators, mappers and surveyors, and office workers were not included in these figures. See data for 1933 here.
Beauty shop wages and working conditions
Source: BLS Monthly Labor Review v. 41 no. 2 (Aug 1935)
Building trades - Union wages - 1936-1961
Choose a decade, then a publication, then click the "View" button.
Building trades - Hourly wages by occupation, state and town, 1938
Shows hourly wages paid to workers employed through the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA), a program to put the unemployed back to work. Shows wage detail for each construction occupation (carpenter, painter, electrician, etc.) by state and then by town. See sections for California, Texas and New York state for example.
Chain store wages, 1931
Table shows average 1929 and 1931 weekly wages of full-time store employees, managers, and supervisors by kind and size of chain and location. Source: Chain Stores (Serial Set 9783).
Clerical workers' earnings, North Atlantic region, 1934-36
Income and expenditures for white and Negro families. Click a publication, then the "View" button. Next, click the magnifying glass and search for the word "earnings" in the text.
Coal mining - Hours and earnings, 1919-1933
Construction - Wages and hours, mid 1930s
This U.S BLS source, “Trend of Employment” shows average wages and hours of work by industry, mainly for manufacturing industries and for construction jobs. Also shows average pay for PWA jobs.
Cooks on passenger vessels based in Boston, 1929-1930
This chart of union wages shows the significant differences in pay for chief cooks, second cooks and night cooks for first class ship passengers, compared to pay earned by cooks for second class passengers on the same vessel.
Deep-sea ship transportation occupations, wage structure - 1935
Wages for chief officers, first mates, second mates etc., radio operators, boatswains, carpenters, electricians, engineers, quartermasters, wheelsmen, petty officers, seamen, cadets, deck boys, engineers, firemen, chefs, cooks, butchers, bakers, scullions, waiters, countermen, salon stewards, deck stewards, cabin stewards, smoking room stewards, wine stewards, bellboys, deck patrol watchmen (security guards), stewardesses, messmen, messboys, porters, laundrymen, clerks, food service workers such as pantrymen and buffet attendants, musicians, orchestra leaders, pursers, ships’ surgeons. Separate tables by type of ship including passenger vessels, freighters, tankers, and all types of ships combined.
Dentists' income, 1929-1948
Nine-page article includes breakouts by state, by size of community, by source of income, and more.
Doctors (physicians and dentists) income, 1939-1976
Shows median net income of office-based, non-salaried physicians and dentists.
Education - Instructional staff salaries by state and race, 1939-1940
Table 7 shows average salary for instructional staff in elementary and secondary schools by race in the states of AL, AR, DE, DC, FL, GA, KY, LA, MD, MS, MO, NC, OK, SC, TN, YX, VA, WV.
Education - Rural teacher salaries by state, 1925-1935
Shows median salaries of teachers and principals by state. Tables run from pages 10-14.
Education - Instructional staff salaries by state, 1929-1946
Table 8 shows average salaries of instructional staff (principals, supervisors and teachers) for every state in every year from 1929-1946. Source: U.S. Biennial Survey of Education.
Engineers' earnings, 1929-1934
Source: U.S. BLS Bulletin No. 682
Firemen - Salaries, late 1930s (link to library item)
The Municipal Yearbook shows the salaries of firemen and fire chiefs for all U.S. cities over 30,000 in population. This work is still in active copyright and unavailable online. However, we would be happy to look up a salary for you if you contact us.
Foundry and machine shop wages, 1931
Trends of hours and earnings. Earnings by occupation. Overtime and bonuses.
Gasoline filling stations and motor-vehicle repair garages - 1931
Days, hours and earnings by occupation and city.
Government workers, federal - Pay scales, 1930-1949
Table shows the basic annual pay rates for federal employees of various services and grades (GS-1 through GS-18, P, SP, CAF and CPC). These are not salary averages.
Household worker wages - Philadelphia, 1928
Shows wages for domestic jobs typically occupied by males (chauffeurs, gardeners, butler, etc.) and females (housekeepers, children's nurse, chambermaids, etc.)
Iron and steel industry wages and hours, 1907-1931
Lawyers' income, 1929-1948
Shows lawyers' incomes by regions and states, by size of community served, by the age of the lawyer and number of years in practice, by WWII veteran status, and more. Source: "Income of Lawyers, 1929-1948" in the August 1949 issue of Survey of Current Business.
Lumber industry job wages and hours, 1921-1932
Manufacturing
See box below for manufacturing wages by industry.

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Includes links to general sources and sources specific to the following industries: food, clothing, textiles, leather, drugs and toiletries, cigarette, paper box, furniture, radio, and ammunition and explosives.
Medical personnel - Income of physicians, dentists and [other health workers], 1939-1976
Median net income of office-based nonsalaried physicians, dentists and male professional workers in health professions. Covers 1939, 1947, 1951, 1955, 1963, 1965, 1967, and 1970-1976.
Mining metals - Wages and hours, 1924 and 1931
Bulletin of the United States BLS, no. 573.
Mining bituminous coal - Wages, 1933
Average days, hours and earnings. Has some comparison data.
Newspaper industry - Editorial staff salaries, 1930-1934
Tells average weekly salaries of newspaper reporters, photographers, artists, clerks, stenographers, newspaper executives, deskmen and errand boys. Source: 1936 U.S. BLS Handbook of Labor Statistics, p, 987-988.
Physicians, non-salaried - Average income, 1929-1949
Table shows average gross and net incomes for non-salaried physicians for each year from 1929-1949.
Police salaries, late 1930s (link to library item)
The Municipal Yearbook shows the salaries of police patrolmen and police chiefs for all U.S. cities over 30,000 in population. This work is still in active copyright and unavailable online. However, we would be happy to look up a salary for you if you contact us.
Politicians - State governor salaries, 1935
The Congressional Record reported annual salaries for governors of U.S. states and territories.
Printing Trades - Union wages and hours
Railway employees - Earnings and standard of living during the Depression
Report of an investigation which studied a sample of 1,000 railway workers who remained employed during the Great Depression. The report tells how these individuals' earnings went down, and what they did to make up for the loss (take in renters, etc.)
Retail shop owner's salaries, 1939
In 1939, Dun & Bradstreet conducted a survey of retail shops to obtain data on their costs of operation. The results included data on salaries drawn by shop owners, and were reprinted in U.S. Department of Commerce publications.
River towboats, wages and hours -1937
Data by occupation.
Slaughtering and meat-packing industry - Wages and hours, 1931
Includes tables that give the information by gender and occupation.
Street-railway employees - Union wages, 1937 and 1938
Wages by the hour, shown by job title and by city of employment.
Teachers
SEE "Education," above in this alphabetical list.
Truckdrivers and Helpers - Union Wages and Hours, 1939
Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics
WPA worker wages in 1939
See WPA worker pay briefly discussed on pages 549-550 of this issue. The wage depended on the worker's skill class and the geographic location where he or she worked.

WAGES in MANUFACTURING, 1930s -- General sources

See tabs above for specific industries

Manufacturing - Average weekly earnings, 1919-1960
Very simple table shows average hours and earnings for all production workers in manufacturing for each year from 1919-1960.
Manufacturing jobs - Earnings and hours
Part of the U.S. BLS Employment and Payrolls series, this source provides average wages by industry, not occupation. The industries however are specific, such as radio and phonograph manufacture, jewelry making, ship building and carpet/rug weaving. Click on any of the following dated reports: 1932: November, December; 1933: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December; 1934: January, February.
Manufacturing wages, 1929-1939
Mainly covers cotton textiles, shoes and paper industries. Source: Investigation of Concentration of Economic Power, Monograph no. 5.
Manufacturing - Average hours and wages, 1929-1936
Source shows wage rates and average hours for workers in manufacturing on page 16. Wages for workers with specific kinds of manufacturers -- automobiles, cigars and cigarettes, telephone and telegraph, etc. -- appear on pages 17-24
Construction - Wages and hours, mid 1930s
This U.S BLS source, “Trend of Employment” shows average wages and hours of work by industry, mainly for manufacturing industries and for construction jobs. Also shows average pay for PWA jobs.

WAGES in FOOD MANUFACTURING, 1930s