chemical industry paid its highest average rate of 62.1 cents to the whites other than Mexicans. Moreover, the public-utility and building-construction groups paid the highest average entrance rates to these whites (51.2 cents and 68.4 cents, respectively).

In the South and Southwest as a whole, where the general level of wage rates is lower than in the North, the whites other than Mexicans had a fairly consistent advantage over the other two racial groups on entrance into the manufacturing industries. For the manufacturing group taken as a whole, the average entrance rate was 38.6 cents for whites other than Mexicans and their rates were the highest in 8 of the 12 individual industries for which comparison is possible. However, the Mexicans had a higher average in the public-utility group (40.7 cents) and virtually the same average as the other whites in building construction (38.4 cents). Negroes and Mexicans were paid almost identical average rates on entrance into the manufacturing industries as a whole (Negroes 33.5 cents, Mexicans 33.4 cents), but Negroes received lower rates than Mexicans in the public utilities and in building construction.

TABLE 4.-Average Hourly Entrance Rates of Adult Male Common Laborers, by Industry, Region, and Race, July 1940

3 Regional figures are omitted, in order not to disclose plant indentity.

The racial differences in wage rates just discussed are based on averages drawn from broad regions. They do not reflect race differentials in individual plants, nor do they necessarily indicate any

uniform differences in rates throughout a region. For example, the relatively high average for Negroes in northern automobile-parts plants results from the fact that most of the Negroes in the industry were employed in the relatively high-wage State of Ohio. A larger number of whites were employed in States where automobile-parts plants paid lower entrance rates, as well as in Ohio and Michigan. As a result, the Negro average for the North and West was higher than the average for whites, even though whites earned as much or more than Negroes in every constituent State in this region. Finally, these entrance rates must not be confused with the general average rates paid to all workers. In several industries in which Mexicans had higher entrance rates than other whites, the entrance rate may apply to the majority of all the Mexican workers but to only a small fraction of the other white workers.

Entrance-Rate Differences Between Industries

The industrial data presented in table 5 reveals that, for the country as a whole, common laborers in the petroleum-refining industry had the highest average hourly entrance rate of any of the 16 manufacturing industries covered in the survey. The average for petroleum refining was 63.6 cents an hour, which is 4.7 cents greater than the next highest manufacturing average of 58.9 cents for common laborers in the iron and steel industry. The lowest average, 36.8 cents an hour, prevailed in the fertilizer industry. The average for the 16 manufacturing industries combined was 49.8 cents an hour. Common laborers in the public-utility group received an average of 47.7 cents an hour, which was lower than the averages for manufacturing or for building construction. Of the utility group, operation and maintenance laborers of street-railway and city motorbus lines were paid the highest average entrance wage, 49.1 cents an hour. Laborers in the electric light and power industry averaged 46.6 cents an hour, or 1 cent less than that paid in the manufactured and natural gas industry. The building-construction industry average of 60.1 cents an hour was higher than that for either manufacturing or public utilities. Common laborers in the petroleum-refining industry were the only ones who fared better than those in building construction.

Marked differences are revealed between the two major regions, not only for all industries combined but also for each of the three major industrial groups. In each group the northern and western region, with its larger urban areas, showed substantially higher average entrance rates. The general average in the North and West was 20.5 cents an hour above that which prevailed in the South and Southwest. A difference of exactly 20 cents existed in the manufacturing group, while the utilities showed a difference of 15.5 cents.

In the building-construction industry the greatest variance appeared, as the average for the South and Southwest was 30.9 cents below that in the North and West.

Variations in averages between individual industries by region were also quite pronounced, ranging in the manufacturing group from 9.4 cents for glass to 24.1 cents for chemicals. Among the utilities, the smallest difference (11.4 cents) appeared in the electric light and power industry, while the greatest (20.4 cents) was found in the operation and maintenance of electric street-railway and city motorbus lines.

Within the northern and western region the average hourly entrance rate for common laborers in all industries combined amounted to 56.0 cents. The petroleum-refining industry, with an average of 67.4 cents per hour for common laborers, led in the manufacturing group. The chemical industry, with an average of 61.9 cents, and the iron and steel industry, with an average of 60.3 cents, occupied second and third positions from the top.

The averages of 48.3 cents an hour in the brick, tile, and terra cotta industry and the 48.6 cents in the fertilizer industry, were the lowest in the manufacturing group. Such industries as foundry and machine-shop products, glass, leather, lumber, paints and varnishes, and paper and pulp had average entrance rates for common laborers of from 50 to 55 cents an hour. The automobile-parts, cement, and meat-packing industries paid average entrance rates of between 55 and 60 cents an hour to newly hired common laborers. The average entrance wage for common laborers for the manufacturing industries as a whole in the northern and western region was 55.3 cents an hour. The public-utility services paid common laborers an average entrance rate of 50.8 cents an hour in the North and West. This public-utility average was made up of average hourly compensations of 52.1 cents for common laborers in electric street-railway and city motorbus operations, 51.4 cents in manufactured and natural gas establishments, and 49.2 cents in the electric light and power industry. The average entrance wage of 68.1 cents an hour for common laborers in building construction was the highest for any one of the 20 industries.

In the South and Southwest the entrance rates of common laborers averaged 35.5 cents an hour. The manufacturing and the utilities groups, taken as a whole, each paid the same average, 35.3 cents an hour. The average for the building-construction industry amounted to 37.2 cents.

• Twenty-one establishments in the rubber tire and tube industry, having a total employment of about 18,500 workers of all skills, reported 396 common laborers at entrance rates. These laborers had an average entrance rate of 51.7 cents per hour. It is believed that this average does not reflect the true average rate for the industry generally, as 14 plants employing about 27,000 reported no common laborers at entrance rates. Of these plants, 7 with a total employment of about 21,000 had entrance rates for common laborers well above the 51.7-cent average, the range of such rates being from 55 to 75 cents an hour.

TABLE 5.-Average Hourly Entrance Rates of Adult Male Common Laborers, by Industry and Region, July 1940

1 These are United States totals, based on monthly reports on employment and pay rolls collected by the Bureau.

Not available.

Regional figures are omitted in order not to disclose plant identity.
See footnote 6, p. 12.

Of the manufacturing group in the South and Southwest, the brick, tile, and terra cotta industry had the lowest average, 29.9 cents an hour. This average, it will be noted, is slightly below the 30-cent wage minimum specified by the Fair Labor Standards Act as applicable to workers engaged in interstate commerce. The explanation appears to be that many of the plants in this industry are engaged solely in intrastate business. Other industries in the South and Southwest that had average hourly entrance rates for common laborers of almost exactly 30 cents were lumber (30.1 cents) and fertilizer manufacturing (31.4 cents). Petroleum refining led in the manufacturing group in the South, as elsewhere, with an average of 57.9 cents an hour. This average was 13.7 cents above the second highest of 44.2 cents, paid in the glass industry. Other industries with entrance rates for common laborers averaging better than 40 cents an hour were cement, 43.2 cents; iron and steel, 43.5 cents;

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leather, 41.1 cents; meat packing, 40.9 cents; and paper and pulp, 40.3 cents. In the chemical, and paint and varnish industries entrance rates averaged between 35 and 40 cents. The southern average for foundry and machine-shop products amounted to 34.4

cents.

In the southern utilities field, the average entrance rate of pay for common laborers was highest in the electric light and power industry— 37.8 cents per hour-followed by manufactured and natural gas with 34.4 cents. Common laborers engaged in the operation and maintenance of electric street-railways and city motorbusses, largely an intrastate operation, paid an average hourly entrance rate of 31.7 cents. Entrance Rates Below Certain Minimum Levels, by Industry and Region

At the time of the Bureau's survey, the Fair Labor Standards Act had been in effect for a year and 8 months. The act provided a 25cent minimum during the first year, which was followed by a 30-cent minimum. The 30-cent minimum was in effect at the time of the survey. Furthermore, industry committees appointed by the Wage and Hour Administrator had recommended some minimum wage rates of more than 30 cents, looking forward to the 40-cent minimum which is the objective of this legislation. These developments serve to increase the interest in the position of individual industries in relation to various possible minimum-wage rates for common labor. Table 6 shows the proportion of all common laborers employed by 19 of the 20 industries surveyed, in each of the two broad regions, who earned less than certain specified rates per hour.

By July 1939, wage rates of less than 30 cents an hour had virtually disappeared in the plants covered by this survey which were engaged in interstate commerce. Eight of the 20 industries surveyed (automobile parts, cement, chemicals, glass, iron and steel, paper and pulp, petroleum refining, and soap manufacturing) reported that no common laborers were employed at rates of less than 30 cents an hour. In 1939 only the petroleum-refining industry made such a report. The remaining industries have at least some establishments which are not engaged in interstate commerce. Of these, the fertilizer and the brick industries had the highest proportion of common laborers receiving less than 30 cents an hour, 9.4 and 3.0 percent, respectively. Greater differences existed in the proportion of common laborers at entrance rates of less than 40 cents an hour. At one extreme was the lumber industry, with 63.8 percent of its common laborers at entrance rates of less than 40 cents. At the other extreme was the petroleum-refining industry, with fewer than 1 percent of its common laborers earning less than 40 cents an hour.