A century of wage statistics : 

the BLS contribution 

Knowledge of the structure of and trends in wages 

is vital to appraisal of the economic status 

of the working population; over its first century 

of life, the Bureau has developed a consistent 

body of information on wages, and progressively 

more sophisticated techniques to analyze it 

H . M. DOUTY 

Wage and salary rates of pay remain at the heart of the labor 

bargain, although a new dimension has been created in 

recent decades by the rise of various forms` of supplements 

to employee compensation . Information on the general 

movement of wage rates, and on the structure of rates by 

such characteristics as occupation, industry, region, union 

status, and sex, provides crucial insight on the status and 

well-being of the working population . In a complex industrial society, the development with limited resources of useful statistics in these areas, and more recently in the area 

of supplementary compensation, has been a formidable undertaking. 

This article traces the work of the Bureau of Labor Statistics over the past century in the field of wage statistics, 

including the attention that has been given since World War 

II to the growth of wage supplements. An effort has been 

made to place this work in broad historical perspective. This 

account does not cover related Bureau programs, including 

the extensive work on consumer prices' and the important 

series of average hourly and weekly earnings by industry 

developed from employment statistics . 2 

H. M. Douty is a former Assistant Commissioner for Wages and Industrial 

Relations, Bureau of Labor Statistics . 

19th century beginnings 

The years 1875 to 1900 were in many ways a period of 

extraordinary economic growth and change in the United 

States . It was marked by the closing of the geographic 

frontier . An impressive expansion of the transportation network' facilitated the settlement of the West, and contributed 

to a large increase in farm output . At the same time, manufacturing expanded at a rapid pace, accompanied in many 

industries by larger scale operations, consolidations of firms, 

and the growth of monopoly practices. 

The last quarter of the century also saw substantial changes 

in the size and industrial composition of the labor force. 

Between 1880 and 1900, the number of "gainful workers" 

increased by almost 12 million. In 1880, the gainfully employed work force was about equally divided between agricultural and nonagricultural employments, but by 1900 the 

agricultural share, while still rising in absolute terms, had 

declined to approximately 37 percent of the total. The proportion of employment in manufacturing, transportation, 

and construction had increased significantly over the same 

period .' 

These changes were accompanied by economic fluctuations of considerable magnitude, including an unusually 

severe depression beginning in 1893. As a result, there arose 

new currents of thought with respect to wage determination, 

16 
trade unionism, and the role of government in relation to 

labor,' and various comprehensive movements for social 

reform emerged.' In particular, the impulse toward collective action to defend or improve labor standards began to 

acquire momentum among the growing wage-earning population . Of major although short-lived significance was the 

meteoric rise of the Knights of Labor, the membership of 

which reached about 700,000 in 1886 but declined precipitously thereafter . Of much greater long-run importance was 

the formation of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) 

in 1881 as a permanent trade union center . The Federation 

survived the long depression of the 1890's, and union membership began to climb sharply toward the end of the decade-rising from 447,000 in 1897 to 868,500 in 1900, 

mainly in unions affiliated with the AFB, .' (These figures 

include Canadian members of labor unions with headquarters in the United States .) 

It was during this period that the Bureau of Labor Statistics was created, with a broad mandate to " . . . collect 

information upon the subject of labor, its relation to capital, 

the hours of labor, and the earnings of laboring men and 

women. . . ." The creation of the new agency in 18'84 

reflected a growing demand for information on labor conditions to provide a basis for improved labor standards. With 

respect to earnings or wages, there were few guides for the 

work of the new Bureau . Some experience with wage surveys had been accumulated by a few State agencies, notably 

in Massachusetts.' At the Federal level, the only important 

previous effort to develop statistics of wages by occupation 

was a special study conducted for the decennial census of 

1880. This report, which was not published until 1886, gave 

annual average wage rates by occupation for "typical" establishments in 53 industries back, where possible, to 1860 

or even earlier. The data, which were collected by mailed 

questionnaires, were published in great detail .' 

The new Federal Bureau was extraordinarily fortunate in 

its first commissioner, Carroll D. Wright, who had headed 

the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor since 1873 .11 

Wright would prove an authentic pioneer in the development 

of labor statistics both here and abroad ." With respect to 

the collection and presentation of wage survey data, a number of general principles reflected his experience in Massachusetts and at the Federal Bureau . These related basically 

to the compilation and presentation of data designed to throw 

light on the structure of wages, although, as we shall see, 

the new Bureau's studies also would provide the basis for 

most of our knowledge of the trend of wages well into the 

present century . 

With regard to the collection of wage data by occupation, 

Wright felt strongly that the use of trained field agents rather 

than mailed questionnaires was required to ensure the adequacy and quality of response . In the absence of modern 

sampling procedures and establishment universe information, he favored the coverage of "typical" or "representative" establishments, which in practice meant those that 

had been in business for some time . Concerning the presentation of wage statistics, Wright was insistent upon the 

use of well-defined occupational classifications . In view of 

the observed dispersion of wage rates within occupations, 

he tended to favor presenting survey results in the form of 

wage distributions, where feasible, rather than by occupational averages alone. "Of late years," he wrote in 1892, 

"the demand has been that employees should be classified 

not only minutely as to occupations, but as to rates of pay 

as well ." 12 

Appropriately, in view of the times, the first annual report 

of the Commissioner dealt with industrial depressions. It 

included the results of the first occupational wage survey 

conducted by the Bureau . The data related to 1885 and were 

taken directly by Bureau agents from the payroll records of 

582 establishments in about 40 industries overwhelmingly 

in the manufacturing sector . The results were published in 

the form of daily average wage rates by occupation, industry, and State; estimates were presented separately for men, 

women, and children and youths ." 

The Commissioner's fifth annual report (1889) on railroad 

labor developed occupational wage statistics in great detail 

for 60 carriers . The Bureau's field agents found more than 

a thousand job titles in the payroll records of these railroads. 

Many of these involved similar duties . The most detailed 

wage statistics were shown in table 1 I of the report, where 

distributions of daily rates or earnings by occupation were 

presented, together with distributions of annual earnings ." 

The claim was made that ". . . the chief value of this report, 

so far as time and wages are concerned, is to be found in 

a thoroughly scientific classification, not only of the time 

employed of each individual employee of the roads considered, but of rates by day and by year," as shown by the 

payrolls . 

is 

These studies, together with two other extensive wage 

surveys conducted during the early 1890's," provided the 

Bureau with invaluable experience in occupational classification, data collection, and the presentation of survey results . They prepared the way for a highly fruitful survey 

stemming from a Senate resolution of March 3, 198 I , which 

instructed the Committee on Finance to study the effects of 

tariff legislation on wages and prices . In accordance with 

the resolution, Senator Nelson W. Aldrich asked Wright to 

undertake the task of developing wage and price statistics 

for the years 1840-91 . 

The problem of locating establishments with payroll records for all or most of this long period obviously was difficult . The study ultimately provided data for more than 500 

occupational series in 22 industries, mainly in manufacturing. Comparatively few of the establishments had usable 

payroll records prior to 1860. The publication of the data 

for two payroll periods in each year by industry, establishment, and occupation, took up almost 1,300 pages of the 

Senate Committee's report ." The Committee observed that 

". . . no other investigation has been made with so wide a 

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MONTHLY LABOR REVIEW November 1984 9 A Century of Wage Statistics : BLS' Contribution 

scope, such a variety of detail, and covering so extensive 

a period ." '8 

The significance of this study for the Bureau's work in 

the field of wage statistics was twofold. It gave experience 

in the collection of data over an extended period in the past, 

and it provided the basis for measurement of changes in the 

level of wages through the construction of wage indexes. 

The latter represented an innovation of signal importance 

for which credit must go to Professor Roland P. Falkner of 

the University of Pennsylvania, who was employed by the 

Senate Committee to analyze the survey data . Using 1860 

as the base year, Falkner prepared indexes for each occupation by establishment, for each of the 22 industries included in the survey, and for the 22 industries combined. '9 

Despite its many limitations, the Bureau's work for the 

Aldrich Committee is the major source of information on 

the structure and course of wages in this country from 1860 

to 1890, and yields some insight for the years back to 1840. 

The study's wage trend estimates have been analyzed and 

reworked a number of times, most recently by E. H. Phelps 

Brown and Sheila V. Hopkins and by Clarence D. Long .2° 

The next major wage study undertaken by the Bureau 

undoubtedly was influenced by experience gained in surveys 

for the Aldrich Report, and foreshadowed the nature of work 

to be done into the 20th century. This study provided average daily wage rates by year for each of 25 selected occupations in 12 major cities for the period 1870-98.2' The 

occupations selected were those "susceptible of accurate 

definition," and the data were taken directly from the payroll 

records of at least two establishments in each city for the 

occupations covered. The report's text tables showed average daily wages by year for all occupations combined, 

and the percentage change since 1870 for each year from 

1871 to 1898 . The latter estimates were deemed to be "quite 

indicative" of the movement of wages generally . Similar 

data were shown for three cities in Great Britain and for 

one city each in France and Belgium. The foreign data were 

compiled by the authorities in the countries concerned at 

the request of the Bureau . 

In short, during the last 15 years of the 19th century, the 

Bureau accumulated considerable experience in the planning 

and conduct of surveys of wages and standard hours of work. 

The merits of data collection from payroll records by personal visit were established . Much insight was gained into 

the difficult problem of job classification at a time when 

formal job descriptions were uncommon and titles for the 

same job could vary widely among establishments . Problems in the presentation of occupational wage data related 

to the observed dispersion of rates of pay were recognized . 

Finally, the introduction of index numbers in the Aldrich 

Report provided a convenient means for measuring the 

movement of wages over time . The development of sophisticated survey sampling techniques was, of course, far 

in the future . 

1900 to the Great Depression 

The Bureau's work in wage statistics during the first three 

decades of the 20th century achieved a coherence that distinguishes it from its 19th century origins . This cohesion 

was attained despite the great economic and social changes 

that occurred during the period, including U.S . participation 

in World War I . Between 1900 and 1930, gross national 

product in constant dollars rose at an average annual rate 

of 3 .1 percent .22 The sharpest downturn in economic activity 

was the comparatively short postwar recession beginning 

toward the end of 1920 . The civilian labor force grew by 

about 20 million, with nonfarm workers accounting for approximately 77 percent of total employment by 1930. The 

automobile began to provide greater mobility for both people 

and industry . The growth in trade union membership that 

had begun in 1897 continued with only minor pauses to 

1920, when membership reached 5 million. A sharp decline 

occurred during the postwar recession, but membership stabilized at about 3 .6 million by 1924.23 Finally, a substantial 

body of protective social legislation was enacted at the State 

level during this 30-year period, largely with reference to 

work performed by women and children . 

During the winter of 1900-01, the Bureau began a major 

study of occupational wages by industry, with the data carried back to 1890. The study was undertaken with the view 

that ". . . the constant demand for current data could be 

met only by a very painstaking and complete investigation 

which would result in thoroughly representative figures for 

a period of years and which would serve as the basis for 

the regular annual collection and presentation of data concerning wages . . . ."24 Due to staff limitations, the study 

required several years for completion . Data for 1902 and 

1903 were included in the final results of the investigation, 

which appeared in 1905 as the Commissioner's Nineteenth 

Annual Report, a volume of almost a thousand pages . 

The study was confined to "the leading manufacturing 

and mechanical industries" and to the "distinctive occupations which are considered representative of each industry," and covered payroll periods most nearly representing 

"normal conditions" of operations for each establishment 

during each year .25 In all, 67 industries, 519 occupations, 

and 3,475 establishments were surveyed . Industry coverage 

was largely confined to manufacturing and the building trades . 

Each year from 1890 to 1903, the Commissioner's Annual 

Report presented average rates of pay by occupation, industry, and region, and for selected occupations, by city 

and State. Complete wage distributions also were given for 

the occupations included in the city and State tabulations . 

An outstanding achievement was the presentation in a text 

table of an overall index of hourly rates, computed from 

averages of industry relatives weighted by aggregate wages 

paid by each industry as shown by the census of 1900.26 

As Paul H. Douglas pointed out in his great study of real 

wages in the United States from 1890 to 1926, the Bureau's 

18 
index computations were for some years the preferred statistical basis for generalizing on the trend of wages . 

27 (Actually, the correspondence between the Bureau's wageweighted index and Douglas' own wage rate index for manufacturing, which was prepared from the same data but 

differently constructed, is strikingly close. For example, 

both indexes show wages in 1903 to be 16 percent higher 

than the average for 1890-99.28) 

The general format of the 1890-1903 study was followed 

in annual surveys during the next 4 years. The results of 

these studies were reported in the Bureau's bimonthly bulletin .29 The surveys again were confined largely to manufacturing, but their scope was limited to industries in which 

wages paid amounted to $10 million or more as shown by 

the 1900 census. The 1904 survey, for example, covered 

350 selected occupations, 3,732 establishments, and 42 

industries . The 1904 wage index for all industries was linked 

to the general index for 1890-1903 on the basis of changes 

in those establishments studied in both 1903 and 1904, and 

this chaining procedure was followed for subsequent years 

to 1907 . 

After 1907, there was a 4-year interruption in the Bureau's 

wage survey program. This was due primarily to the pressure 

of other work, notably a large investigation into the conditions of women and child wage earners and a study of 

wages, hours, and working conditions in the iron and steel 

industry, both of which were published as Senate documents. The program was resumed in 1912 with two series 

of surveys. The first consisted of studies based on payroll 

records of rates of pay (or of earned rates for incentive 

workers) in selected occupations in 12 industries : cotton, 

wool, and silk textiles ; lumber, millwork, and furniture; 

boots and shoes; hosiery and knit goods; cigars ; clothing ; 

iron and steel ; and building and repairing of steam railroad 

cars . Except in the case of cigars and clothing, data were 

carried back to 1907. Within the next few years, five of 

these industries (silk, millwork, furniture, cigars, and car 

building) were dropped while slaughtering and meatpacking 

was added . The industries that remained in the program 

were surveyed approximately every 2 years until 1933. 

The 1912 survey of cotton-goods manufacturing and finishing illustrates the essential nature of this group of studies .3° Bureau agents obtained data for the "principal 

occupations" directly from mill payroll records. An innovation was the publication of job descriptions in the survey 

report . The coverage of establishments was considerably 

broader than in earlier studies of cotton-goods manufacturing, and the data, as previously noted, were carried back 

to 1907 . Distributions of workers by hourly rates of pay at 

1-cent intervals were shown by occupation for the industry 

as a whole and by State . The Bureau's continued interest 

in the trend of wages was manifest by the linkage of annual 

wage changes during 1907-12 to the existing 1890-1907 

index for cotton textiles . 

The second group of studies begun in 1912 were concerned with union wage scales and standard hours of work 

in the building industry, newspaper printing, book and job 

printing, marble and stone work, metal trades, baking, and 

millwork . In all, 49 crafts were surveyed in 39 cities . The 

initial report states that the data were ". . . in every case 

furnished by officials of the local unions to special agents 

of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and wage scales, written 

agreements, and trade union records were used wherever 

possible . 

1131 

As with the payroll studies, the union wage data were 

extended back to 1907. Wage scales were shown by trade 

and city for each year from 1907 to 1912, and indexes of 

the movement of scales back to 1890 were computed for 

many of the crafts in the industries covered . These studies, 

with some changes in industry coverage, were to continue 

on an annual basis for almost 80 years . 

These payroll and union wage studies had the great virtue 

of providing a large measure of consistency in the Bureau's 

occupational wage survey program over a period of roughly 

two decades. They also provided a measure of continuity 

with the major survey that had produced the 1890-1903 

report on occupational wages and with the annual surveys 

of 1904-07 . They developed data on the structure of wages 

by skill and sex for manual jobs in a variety of relatively 

low-wage and high-wage industries . Data provided by locality and State yielded a measure of insight into interarea 

wage differences. 

As previously mentioned, these surveys were the source 

for the manufacturing and building components of the seminal Douglas study of money and real wages from 1890 to 

1926. Shortly after World War I, the Bureau itself ventured 

to put together an annual general index of wages in response 

to inquiries that ". . . have generally related to recent years 

but . . . frequently ask for an index that shall compare Civil 

War changes with those during and following the late World 

War."32 The index was prepared (with some hesitation) 

from "all sources available," and was published initially 

for the period from 1840 to 1920 . It was later extended in 

several stages to 1934.33 

Two additional observations should be made concerning 

the Bureau's work in wage statistics during this period . The 

first is that World War I had minimal impact on the generation of wage data . Although several Government agencies were established to deal with wartime labor problems, 

there was no effort, as there would be during World War 

II, to impose comprehensive wage controls . Wage adjustment efforts for particular industries (such as shipbuilding) 

tended to focus on those made necessary by rising living 

costs, which led to the establishment of the Bureau's Consumer Price Index . Toward the end of the war, the War 

Industries Board asked the Bureau to undertake wage surveys in a number of industries for use in the solution of 

labor problems and to provide a record of industrial con19 
MONTHLY LABOR REVIEW November 1984 * A Century of Wage Statistics : BLS' Contribution 

ditions at the height of the war effort . These surveys, with 

occupational wage data for 28 industries, were not completed until after the war, and the results were published in 

1920 .3a 

The second observation is that, while generally continuing the group of payroll studies begun in 1912, the Bureau 

extended its wage survey activity to additional industries 

during the 1920's . A number of these were manufacturing 

industries essentially new to the 20th century, including 

motor vehicles, rubber tires, synthetic textiles, and 

airplane and aircraft engines. Several nonmanufacturing industries also were added to the program, most 

notably bituminous coal mining and air transport. 

This major phase of the Bureau's work in wage statistics 

came to an end about 1932 . Although the surveys of the 

period were confined to manual jobs and largely to selected 

industries in the manufacturing sector, they provided a reasonably consistent body of data on both the structure and 

trend of wages for industrial workers. They undoubtedly 

also played a role in private wage determination through 

collective bargaining and employer personnel administration . In their absence, we should know much less than we 

do about economic conditions during the first three decades 

of this century. 

Depression and war, 1930-45 

The Great Depression began toward the end of 1929 . 

Unemployment, which was estimated at 3 .3 percent of the 

civilian labor force during the years 1923-29, rose to an 

estimated 25 percent in 1933. Recovery was only partial 

during the remainder of the decade; even in 1940, the unemployment rate was estimated at 14 .6 percent . However, 

the steady expansion of war production and of the Armed 

Forces after mid-1940 brought the rate to 1 .2 percent by 

1944.35 

The singular decade of the 1930's witnessed the beginning 

of an unprecedented and continuing involvement of the Federal Government with the economy .Aside from social insurance programs, this development expressed itself with 

respect directly to labor in two major forms . The first was 

machinery through the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931 and the 

Walsh-Healey Act of 1936 for the establishment of wage 

standards for workers employed by contractors or subcontractors on public construction or in the provision of materials and supplies to the Federal government, and, by the 

Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, for minimum wages for 

most workers engaged in or producing goods for interstate 

commerce . The second, embodied in the National Labor 

Relations Act, protected the right of workers to join unions 

and imposed upon employers the duty to bargain collectively 

over wages and other terms of employment. Partially as a 

result of this latter act, U.S . union membership, which had 

declined to 2.7 million by 1933, reached 14 .3 million by 

1945,36 and collective bargaining was extended to many 

strategic sectors of the economy . During the same year that 

the act was passed, however, a deep split occurred in the 

trade union movement, a breach that was not to be closed 

for 20 years . 

By the time the United States became involved in World 

War II as, a combatant on December 7, 1941, the economic 

impact of the conflict had already begun to be felt and 

measures to deal with its consequences had emerged. One 

group of measures designed to contain the inflationary consequences of resource diversion to war production was comprehensive control of changes in wage rates and prices .37 

This had a decisive effect on the Bureau's wartime wage 

statistics program, and postwar consequences as well . 

The early 1930's had seen the end of the relatively small 

but systematic program of payroll-based industry wage surveys that had been conducted during the previous two decades . The annual survey of "common labor entrance rates" 

was discontinued in the early 1940's in large part because 

of the increasing ambiguity of the concept of "unskilled" 

or "common" labor .38 Dropped also, in 1934, was the 

occasional publication of the broad annual wage index that 

had first been published in 1920, having been pieced together from such data as were available .39 Its discontinuance 

appears to have been related to the institution in 1932 of 

the Bureau's average employment and payroll reporting system. 

Between 1932 and the beginning of the defense buildup 

in 1940, the Bureau's wage survey activity was largely, 

although not entirely, geared to the informational needs of 

the new Federal agencies concerned with labor standards. 

Thus, a number of studies were undertaken for use in 

the administration of the short-lived National Industrial 

Recovery Act of 1933 which provided by industry for 

"codes of fair competition" containing minimum wage 

and maximum hour provisions . At the direct order of 

the President, an especially noteworthy study was made 

in the cotton textile industry covering pay periods in 

1933 and 1934, following a general strike in that industry in 1934. Several surveys were undertaken in 

cooperation with the Works Progress Administration. 

Work was done also in connection with prevailing 

minimum wage determinations under the Walsh-Healey 

(Public Contracts) Act of 1936, which covered work 

performed by Federal government contractors." 

The pace of survey activity accelerated after the passage 

of the Fair Labor Standards Act (1938), which initially 

provided for Federal minimum wage determination (above 

a statutory level) on an industry basis. During 1938 and 

1939, about 45 industry wage surveys were conducted for 

use in minimum wage proceedings. Most of these studies 

developed data on the distribution of workers by pay rates 

or straight-time hourly earnings, without occupational detail . They typically related to relatively low-wage consumergoods industries . In a few cases, they provided the basis 

for appraisal of the wage and employment effects of minimum wage orders before these effects were masked by the 

upsurge of economic activity associated with the war. 

20 
Concern with minimum wage determinations faded as the 

defense program got underway in mid-1940 . With expansion of the defense effort, unemployment declined, shortages of skilled workers began to appear, and the incidence 

of strikes rose sharply during the first half of 1941 . In March 

of that year, a tripartite National Defense Mediation Board 

was appointed to assist in the settlement of labor disputes ; 

this agency was superseded in January 1942 by the National 

War Labor Board, which was given the additional function 

of stabilizing rates of pay as part of a comprehensive economic stabilization effort . 

As a consequence of these developments, the Bureau's 

wage survey activity shifted initially from consumer-goods 

industries to heavy industries essential to war production . 

Occupational wage studies were undertaken in such industries as shipbuilding, aircraft, rubber, nonelectrical machinery, and the mining, smelting, and refining of nonferrous 

metals . Beginning in 1941, special studies were also requested for use in the settlement of specific labor disputes 

in industries vital to the war effort . 

With the beginning of comprehensive wage stabilization 

under the War Labor Board, the governmental need for wage 

statistics increased manyfold . This led to a substantial expansion of Bureau staff and the establishment of regional 

offices to parallel those set up by the Board. For the most 

part, two types of wage information were provided for Board 

use . The first involved data on wage rates or straight-time 

earnings by occupation, industry, and labor market for Board 

decisions in thousands of claims for increases on interplant 

wage inequity grounds ,4' together with some studies in connection with specific labor disputes . The second was a general wage rate index to measure the effectiveness of the 

wage stabilization program . 

The surveys for use in Board decisions in inequity cases 

involved special procedures to expedite data collection and 

presentation . These included the development of patterns 

of "key" jobs by industry, the preparation of uniform job 

descriptions, and the standardized presentation of survey 

results. Altogether, job patterns, each typically including 

from 10 to 20 occupations, were prepared for more than 

120 manufacturing and nonmanufacturing industries . It was 

reported in 1945 that, under this crash program, data on 

pay rates in key occupations had been collected from more 

than 100,000 establishments, and that some 8,000 reports 

on an industry-locality basis had been transmitted to the 

Board." This was an extraordinary achievement over a period of little more than 2 years, and represented a vital 

contribution to the wartime wage stabilization program . 

The second Bureau contribution to the wage stabilization 

effort was the construction of an occupationally based index 

of urban wage rates. Because the War Labor Board sought 

to stabilize basic rates of pay rather than earnings, such an 

index was needed to provide some measure of its effectiveness . A properly constructed index can eliminate many of 

the factors that affect earnings rather than rates, including 

premium pay for overtime and late-shift work, interindustry 

employment shifts, and changes in occupational skill ratios . 

The urban wage index was based on data for key occupations in about 6,000 establishments, and covered selected 

manufacturing and nonmanufacturing industries in some 69 

labor markets, It was issued semiannually beginning in April 

1943, but was estimated back to January 1941 for the manufacturing sector .43 Discontinued largely for budgetary reasons in 1947, this index would have been a valuable tool 

for the analysis of postwar wage movements. Its final publication gave estimates of wage-rate change for manufacturing between January 1941 and September 1947, and for 

selected nonmanufacturing industries between April 1943 

and April 1947 .44 

Postwar program adjustment, 1945-47 

For more than 3 years, almost all of the Bureau's expanded resources for wage survey purposes had been devoted to data needs for wage stabilization and labor dispute 

settlement . By the beginning of 1945, the pressure of these 

needs had eased substantially . The war was coming to an 

end, and problems of industry reconversion to peacetime 

production were being discussed. It was now necessary to 

devise an interim program to meet anticipated requirements 

for wage statistics during the immediate postwar period . 

The most significant Bureau decision with regard to the 

wage program was to conduct a large number of nationwide 

occupational wage surveys on an industry basis, with regional and locality breakdowns whenever possible . Between 

1945 and mid-1947, such studies were made in no fewer 

than 70 manufacturing and 11 nonmanufacturing industries . 

Each presented data on rates of pay for selected occupations 

and rate distributions for all plant workers on a national and 

regional basis, and virtually all contained occupational data 

for specific localities . Information typically was shown on 

occupational earnings by size of establishment, size of community, method of wage payment, and unionization, and 

for such plant practices as scheduled hours of work, shift 

differentials, paid vacations and sick leave, and insurance 

and pension plans . Most of the studies also contained data 

on salaries for a few office occupations. 

This large group of nationwide studies were issued in a 

special series of wage structure reports in mimeographed 

form . Unfortunately, few were published in the Bureau's 

series of numbered bulletins, but many summary articles 

based on the surveys appeared in the Monthly Labor Review. 

45 

During this period, the Bureau continued its annual surveys of union wage scales in building, printing, and several 

other industries . Of great importance in subsequent survey 

planning were studies of clerical salaries on a crossindustry basis in a few local labor markets . A variety of 

special studies relating to such issues as guaranteed wage 

plans in the United States, the economic status of 

registered nurses, and the experience of workers in 

various industrial reconversion situations also were conducted . 

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MONTHLY LABOR REVIEW November 1984 e A Century of Wage Statistics : BLS' Contribution 

Particular notice should be given to the rise of a broad 

analytical capability within the Bureau during this period . 

This, no doubt, was a function of staff size stimulated by 

the exceptional volume of statistical information generated 

during 1945-47 . Several notable studies were produced, 

including an analysis of changes in wage differentials by 

skill for manual workers between 1907 and 1947 in manufacturing and the building trades .' This pioneer study pointed 

up striking changes that had occurred in supply-demand conditions in the labor market over the four decades. A companion 

study, confined to manufacturing, dealt with the course of 

regional wage differentials during the same period . 

17 Other 

studies relating to the immediate postwar period dealt with 

such topics as shift differentials in manufacturing, vacation 

practices in major industry groups, and the prevalence of insurance and pension plans. 

Reshaping wage programs, 1947-70 

In mid-1947, the Bureau experienced a sharp reduction 

in its budget-in effect a postwar readjustment-although 

its resources remained substantially above the prewar level . 

With respect to wage statistics, this budget reduction, together with other factors, led to a major reexamination of 

programs . 

A basic question was whether continued concentration on 

nationwide industry surveys represented the best use of the 

available resources . Experience during the war had indicated 

the great importance of data at the level of the local labor 

market, where most wage decisions occur. It was clear, 

moreover, that the white-collar segment of the labor force 

had shown impressive growth and would continue to expand. In pay determination for most types of white-collar 

workers, the importance of the local labor market was, if 

anything, greater than for manual workers. Most whitecollar jobs are found in a great variety of industries, suggesting the need for some type of cross-industry survey for 

this type of employment . 

Other influences also were at work. The rapid spread of 

trade unionism in the 1930's and during the war, and the 

"rounds" of wage increases during the years immediately 

following the war, produced great interest in the dynamics 

of wage adjustment . Another influence was the spread of 

supplementary benefits, public and private, representing income to workers and cost to employers. Aside from the 

existence of a broad demand for data for use in private wage 

decisions and for public policy purposes, great academic 

research interest also had developed." 

A general factor that contributed importantly to program 

development during this period was the emergence during 

the late 1940's of efficient modes of probability sampling 

in government statistical surveys.49 With relation to the Bureau's studies of occupational wages, pathbreaking work 

was done in adapting probability sampling to universes of 

establishments .5° The use of probability sampling, rather 

than purposive sampling, permitted a more efficient use of 

survey resources, the more reliable calculation of population 

values, and the estimation of sampling errors . 

The essential problem in 1947 was to devise, with limited 

resources, a program that would throw as much light as 

possible on the structure of occupational wages and salaries, 

on supplementary forms of compensation, and on the dynamics of wage development. Considerable thought and 

experimentation suggested that two occupational wage survey systems were needed, together with several other types 

of recurring reports." The principal ingredients of the revised program are summarized below. 

Cross-industry labor market surveys. In 1948, pilot studies on the collection of salary data for office clerical occupations on a cross-industry basis were undertaken in a 

few large labor markets ." These were successful technically, and the response from users of wage data in the 

markets covered was encouraging. In 1949, experimental 

surveys were made in a number of smaller cities . The occupational coverage was broadened in these studies to include selected skilled and relatively unskilled manual jobs 

that were not unique to particular industries . The skilled 

manual occupations were drawn primarily from those involved in plant maintenance, and the unskilled from material 

movement, warehousing, and custodial work . Out of this 

experimental effort grew the concept of the community wage 

survey .s3 

As it happened, this exploratory work was coming to a 

close at the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, which 

called forth another wage stabilization effort . The National 

Wage Stabilization Board, formed in September 1950 to 

administer wage controls, concluded that community wage 

studies were well suited for use in its work. It provided 

resources for the conduct of such studies in a large number 

of labor markets, with occupational coverage extended to 

jobs peculiar to major industries in each area surveyed. The 

results of these and other Bureau wage studies and reports 

were extensively used in Board decisions, 54 and provided 

the basis for a series of analyses of interarea differences in 

the level of wages, occupational differentials, fringe benefits, extent of unionization, and the formalization of wage 

structures . 

5s 

Wage Stabilization Board budgetary support for the labor 

market survey program ended after the Korean emergency. 

The Bureau's own resources could provide for only about 

20 community surveys annually, with coverage limited to 

cross-industry occupations . It was decided as a matter of 

policy to conduct these surveys in the same metropolitan 

areas each year . This decision was based largely on the fact 

that the use of survey data in wage determinations by employers and unions depends on its currency. Extensive support developed for the surveys in the communities in which 

they were made. Numerous requests for community surveys 

in other areas had to be firmly rejected . 

22 
In light of the widespread interest in the cross-industry 

type of survey, a rational basis was sought for a more elaborate program. The result was a proposal for annual surveys 

in a sample of metropolitan areas (approximately 80 of the 

183 then existing), selected to represent all such areas . The 

sample was designed to include all metropolitan areas with 

employment of 250,000 or more . This would permit estimates of the level and distribution of wages for a significant 

group of white-collar and manual jobs for all metropolitan 

areas-in effect, for the urban economy . It would provide 

a basis for national estimates, separately for office and plant 

workers, of scheduled hours of work, holiday and vacation 

provisions, the incidence of private insurance and pension 

plans, and collective bargaining coverage. Wage comparisons among areas and broad regions also could be made . 

The budgetary requirements for this program were met 

toward the end of the 1950's when an urgent Federal need 

developed for national data on white-collar salaries in private industry to implement a comparability pay policy for 

the 1 .7 million Federal white-collar and postal employees . 

An interagency technical committee concluded that the annual 80-area survey design was an appropriate survey vehicle, with additional data collected from a subsample of 

establishments for selected professional, managerial, and 

technical jobs . 51 The Congress approved funds for this program, and for expansion of other aspects of wage survey 

activity, for fiscal 1960 (then beginning July 1959) . When 

Congress passed the Federal Salary Reform Act of 1962, 

this cross-industry survey system had been tested in 2 years 

of operation . 

57 

With some changes in the design and size of the sample, 

refinements in occupational definitions, the inclusion of a 

number of additional occupations, and modifications of data 

collection procedures, this survey system has continued on 

an annual basis for more than two decades. 

Industry wage surveys. Occupational wage studies on an 

industry basis were not abandoned with the development of 

the community wage survey program . Such studies remained highly important for insight into the structure of 

wages and benefits for nonsupervisory workers in establishment groupings differentiated by product, technology, 

labor force composition, extent of unionization, and other 

factors. Partly for economy in the use of resources, there 

was a shift in emphasis during the late 1940's from the 

industrywide surveys of the 1945-47 period to surveys in 

major areas of industry concentration . The intent behind this 

industry-locality program was the annual study of wages 

and related benefits in some 25 manufacturing and nonmanufacturing industries, together with less frequent industrywide studies in a few industries where wages were 

determined on a national basis . The long-term program of 

union scale studies in a few industries was continued. 

During the 1950's, the Bureau also undertook under contract many surveys, largely of the wage distribution type, 

for use in appraisal of the effects of minimum wage actions 

under the Fair Labor Standards Act, and as a basis for 

decisions on minimum wage policy . These studies continued 

into the 1960's as minimum wage coverage was extended 

to retail trade, service industries, and other areas of employment . 

The industry wage studies program was enlarged and 

systematized as part of the planning process that produced 

the 80-area community wage survey proposal . Provision 

was made for recurring studies in approximately 50 manufacturing and 20 nonmanufacturing industries, either nationally or in areas of major concentration." Most of these 

industries were scheduled for survey on a 5-year cycle, with 

others, predominately in textiles and apparel, on a 3-year 

cycle. The few studies based on union scales rather than 

employer payroll records would continue on an annual basis . 

Altogether, about 20 surveys would be planned for each 

year. 

At the time of their selection, the 70 industries included 

in the program accounted for about three-fifths of manufacturing and a third of nonmanufacturing employment . The 

3- or 5-year periodicity for most of these studies was not 

ideal, but industry wage structures (that is, relative rates of 

pay) tend to change slowly . These surveys developed data 

for selected jobs, such as plant maintenance, that cut across 

industry lines, and also for selected processing jobs peculiar 

to each industry . Data for the distribution of rates of pay 

or straight-time hourly earnings for all production or nonsupervisory workers were collected, together with information on establishment practices, such as shift work, and 

supplementary benefits provisions . 

Thus, .by the end of the 1950's, two well-articulated occupational wage survey programs had been developed, one 

on a local labor market and the other on an industry basis. 

The latter program also provided for a considerable amount 

of information by labor market or region . Together, they 

shed much light on the level and structure of wages and 

salaries in the U.S . economy, and provided data for a variety 

of governmental uses, private wage and salary decisions, 

and research . 

Supplementary remuneration surveys. Beginning in the 

second half of the 1930's, a variety of supplements to basic 

rates of pay began to assume significance in the U.S . wage 

structure . These supplements, some legally required and 

others established through collective bargaining or employer 

personnel policy, provided additional money income, paid 

leisure, or income security for workers, and represented a 

cost to employers. 

It was clear by 1950 that benefits supplementary to basic 

wages would continue to account for an increasing share of 

worker, compensation . In 1951, with close industry cooperation, a study was made of supplementary expenditures 

in basic steel . In 1953, a methodological study of problems 

in the measurement of employer expenditures on major benefits in manufacturing was undertaken .59 This was followed 

in 1956 by a study of benefit expenditures in the electric 
MONTHLY LABOR REVIEW November 1984 " A Century of Wage Statistics : BLS' Contribution 

and gas utility industry, conducted as part of an industry 

wage survey, and by a 1958 survey of the composition of 

payroll hours for factory workers . 

Finally, in 1959, a continuous program was launched. 

The initial study measured employer expenditures on benefits for production workers in manufacturing. Data were 

developed by major industry group, region, level of wages, 

size of establishment, collective bargaining coverage, metropolitan or nonmetropolitan location, and the composition 

of payroll hours.' This broad-based study was repeated in 

1962, following benefit expenditure surveys in the mining 

and finance, insurance, and real estate industries . At the 

request of the Civil Service Commission, a special survey 

was made in 1963 of benefit expenditures for white-collar 

workers in metropolitan areas in a broad segment of U.S . 

industry . During the following 2 years, numerous studies 

were conducted in individual manufacturing and nonmanufacturing industries . 

In 1966, an initial survey was made of compensation 

expenditures in the entire private nonfarm economy . 6' Data 

were shown separately for manufacturing and nonmanufacturing, by establishment size, and, for nonoffice workers, 

by union status . This study, in essence, rounded out more 

than a decade of experimental work and studies in limited 

industrial sectors . Future surveys were to be conducted biennially for the entire private nonfarm economy, with studies 

in selected industries in the intervening years.62 

Current wage changes . During the years immediately following World War II, enormous interest developed in changes 

in wage rates and employee benefits in major collective 

bargaining situations . This reflected the growth of collective 

bargaining as a mechanism for wage determination, and the 

influence that major settlements might have on the wage 

bargain-union and nonunion-in other firms and industries . 

To facilitate response to inquires, the Bureau began publication of a monthly report entitled Current Wage Developments in January 1948. This report, available on a 

subscription basis, sought to list general wage changes and 

changes in benefit provisions in all collective bargaining 

settlements covering 1,000 workers or more. Because the 

report was based largely on secondary sources, the names 

of the unions and employers concerned in the settlements 

were identified . 

This monthly periodical has become a major source of 

information on current wage behavior. The year 1954 saw 

the inclusion for the first time of quarterly and annual statistical summaries of newly negotiated wage rate changes." 

During the mid-1960's, procedures were devised for estimating the cost of supplementary benefits, and since 1966, 

data have been presented on the total change in compensation in bargaining settlements affecting 5,000 workers or 

more. In 1968, statistics were developed on wage adjustments put into effect from (1) settlements during the year ; 

(2) deferred changes under agreements negotiated in earlier 

years; and (3) provisions for adjustments geared to changes 

in the cost of living . The coverage of the report was extended 

in 1979 to State and local government collective bargaining 

settlements involving 5,000 workers or more . 

Somewhat related to the monthly report on current wage 

developments was the inauguration, also in 1948, of a series 

of reports on changes in wages and supplementary benefits 

in a limited number of key collective bargaining situations . 

Through periodic supplements, these wage chronologies 

summarized the history of wage and benefit changes resulting from negotiations between unions and such major 

employers as United States Steel, General Motors, and 

Lockheed Aircraft . The bargains covered were important in 

themselves and were thought in many cases to have significant pattern-setting effects in wage determination. By the 

beginning of the 1970's, about 35 chronologies were being 

maintained . 

Wage rate trends 

Several of the survey systems devised after 1947 provided, as a byproduct, data on the trend of wages for important groups in the working population . 

From the monthly reports on current wage 

developments, annual median and mean adjustments 

and wage indexes were developed for workers in the 

universe of major collective bargaining agreements, 

thus providing the basis for index computation . On the 

basis of the occupational surveys by labor market, annual indexes of wage change were constructed for office 

workers, skilled maintenance workers, unskilled plant 

workers, and industrial nurses in all metropolitan areas, 

nationwide and by region, over the period 1961-74." 

These indexes were discontinued in 1974 (with the last 

report published in 1975) when the method of computing wage changes in the separate labor markets was 

revised and a more comprehensive wage rate index, 

described in the following section, was introduced. The 

annual report on salaries for selected professional, administrative, technical, and clerical jobs has provided 

the basis since 1961 for developing measures of salary 

trend for these occupational groups . 

In the early 1950's, the Bureau also began to issue a 

series of reports on the trend of salaries for important groups 

of government employees . The initial report for white-collar 

Federal workers covered the period 1939-50; for city public 

school teachers, 1925-49; and for firemen and policemen, 

1924-50. These reports were based on Congressional salary 

actions for classified employees in the Federal service; on 

reports on teacher salaries published by the National Education Association; and on several data sources for firemen 

and policemen. 

The reapprfiisal of the Bureau's work in wage statistics 

that began in 1947 produced over two decades a multidimensional program that sought to meet, within the budget 
constraints under which it operated, a wide variety of governmental and private needs for information. It provided 

significant insight into (1) the structure of wage and salary 

rates of pay for major groups of workers, manual and whitecollar ; (2) the rise of and expenditures for supplementary 

benefits as part of compensation for work; and (3) the dynamics and trend of wage developments . 

The turbulent years, 1970-84 

The 1970-84 period provided a turbulent backdrop for 

developments in wage statistics programs . Wide cyclical 

swings in the economy, coupled with Federal activitieswage and price controls and guidelines, minimum wage 

adjustments, and reevaluation of pay setting for Federal 

employees-affected Bureau wage programs . The number 

and scope of such programs grew substantially through 

1978, but then contracted abruptly and leveled off in the 

face of Federal budget constraints . 

Employment Cost Index. During the early 1970's, Federal 

wage and price controls highlighted a major shortcoming in 

the Nation's economic intelligence system. Information was 

lacking on changes in employers' compensation costs (or 

labor costs), free from influences unrelated to cost change, 

such as employment shifts among occupations and industries 

with different labor cost levels . Without such information, 

it was virtually impossible to gauge the effects of wage 

controls in the same way that price controls were assessed 

on the basis of the Bureau's Consumer Price Index . (A 

similar need had been addressed when the Bureau developed 

the short-lived, occupationally based "urban wage rate index" to measure the War Labor Board's effectiveness in 

stabilizing wage rates during World War II .) 

During the 1971-74 controls period, policymakers trying 

to track wage rates or compensation costs were faced with 

a wide array of Bureau information, all useful for some 

purposes, including estimates of average hourly compensation and average hourly and weekly earnings, data on collectively bargained wage adjustments, and surveys of 

occupational pay levels . The various wage measures, unfortunately, gave mixed and incomplete signals about developments in wage and compensation costs. 

It was in this climate that the Bureau began a long-range 

effort to develop the Employment Cost Index (EC), initially 

called the "general wage index." The ECt was designed to 

be a timely and comprehensive measure of labor cost change, 

covering all types of workers and industries in the economy 

and all elements of compensation costs (wages, salaries, 

and employer costs for employee benefits).°e 

A critical feature of the ECi design was the use of fixed 

employment weights by occupation and industry . This feature specifies measurement of labor cost changes in much 

the same way that the Bureau's Consumer Price Index measures changes in the prices of a fixed market basket of goods 

and services . Like the cm the ECi also yields subindexes 

(by broad occupational group, industry, union or nonunion 

status, and so forth) to provide insights into forces underlying overall wage and compensation cost trends . 

The EC was developed in stages to meet its design objectives . Quarterly measures of wage and salary change for 

workers in the Nation's nonfarm economy were first published in 1976. The series was broadened to cover changes 

in total compensation costs (employee benefit costs in addition to wages and salaries) in 1980. The following year, 

the EC was further expanded to cover State and local government workers . Over the 1976-84 period, the number of 

ECt subindexes increased from 21 to 85 . 

The EC-designated as a "Principal Federal Economic 

Indicator" in October 1980-now provides measures of 

quarterly compensation cost changes for 78 million privatesector workers and 13 million State and local government 

employees . It currently excludes farm, household, and Federal workers, although coverage may be extended to these 

groups in the future . 

FLSA surveys . Prior to 1970, the Bureau conducted a wide 

range of surveys designed to shed light on the impact (or 

potential impact) of changes in the minimum wage and 

maximum hours provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act 

(FLSA) . The surveys, which developed data on employee 

wages and weekly hours of work, were narrowly focused 

on industries and areas judged to be most heavily affected 

by changes in the Federal minimum wage, such as men's 

and boys' shirt manufacturing, southern sawmills, retail 

trade, and nonmetropolitan areas of the South and North 

Central regions . 

The focus broadened in 1970 with the first Bureau study 

of distributions of hourly earnings and weekly hours of work 

for nonsupervisory employees in the private nonfarm economy. With this study-designed to estimate the number of 

workers whose wage rates would be raised in response to 

potential changes in the Federal minimum, and the consequent increases in establishment wage billsbegan a period of accelerated Bureau survey activity related 

to FLSA and funded by the Labor Department's Employment 

Standards Administration (ESA). Subsequent years saw several increases in the Federal minimum wage-from $1 .60 

to $2 an hour in May 1974 (the first adjustment since 1968), 

followed by a series of six adjustments that brought the 

minimum to $3 .35 an hour on January l , 1981 . 

During the mid-1970's, the Bureau conducted surveys of 

industries and occupations exempt from FLSA minimum wage 

and overtime coverage (including small newspapers; truckdrivers and helpers in local cartage ; and executive, administrative, and professional employees) . Survey results were 

used by ESA in judging whether an exemption should be 

continued, based on the effect it had on wages and hours 

of work for affected employees . In the case of executive, 

administrative, and professional employees, the survey was 

25 
MONTHLY LABOR REVIEW November 1984 9 A Century of Wage Statistics: BLS' Contribution 

used to assist ESA in setting minimum salaries as one test 

for FLSA exemption. 

The 1977 FLSA Amendments created a Minimum Wage 

Study Commission to help "resolve the many controversial 

issues that have surrounded the Federal minimum wage and 

overtime requirements since their origin in the Fair Labor 

Standards Act of 1938 .116' The responsibility for research 

on FLSA amendments shifted to the Commission in 1978 . 

The Commission's request for Bureau surveys, which continued to be funded by ESA, resulted in broad-based studies 

similar to the 1970 survey of nonsupervisory employees in 

private industry . Also at the request of the Commission, the 

Bureau developed a panel study of establishments with which 

to gauge the effects of changes in the minimum wage on 

employee benefits within individual firms. 

The Bureau's work on FLSA surveys and the panel study 

ended in 1981, as did the life of the Commission . 

Federal pay comparability. As shown earlier, the adoption 

by the Congress in 1962 of a comparability pay policy for 

Federal white-collar employees led to the conduct by the 

Bureau of an annual nationwide occupational survey of salaries in private industry for use in policy implementation . 

The 1962 Act was amended by the Federal Pay Comparability Act of 1970. Under the amended act, the Bureau's 

annual study of Professional, Administrative, Technical, 

and Clerical Pay (the PATC survey) continues to provide a 

statistical basis for policy considerations . Its results are used 

by the President's Pay Agent (the Secretary of Labor and 

the Directors of the Office of Management and Budget and 

the Office of Personnel Management) in making annual 

recommendations to the President on pay adjustments needed 

to make salaries of Federal white-collar employees comparable to those of their private-sector counterparts . 

The Federal pay determination process, including the PATC 

survey, is large, complex, and highly controversial . 68 It now 

affects the pay of more than 3 million employees (including 

the military) and has substantial impact on the Federal budget; every 1-percent increase in Federal pay scales costs 

about $1 billion. The magnitude of the costs involved and 

the controversy surrounding the determination process have 

triggered no fewer than six procedural reviews and evaluations . 

Review of the process began with a General Accounting 

Office audit in 1972. Subsequent evaluations were conducted by the President's Panel on Federal Compensation 

(the Rockefeller Panel) in 1975, the Personnel Management 

Project (the Carter Administration's task group on Federal 

Government reorganization) in 1977, the Grace Commission 

in 1982-83, the General Accounting Office again in 1983, 

and the Reagan Administration's Cabinet Council on Management and Administration in 1984. The reviews generated 

a variety of recommendations for improving the pay determination process, including: 

Expansion of the PATC survey to cover smaller establishments and more private-sector industries ; 

e Amendment of the 1970 Act to include State and local 

government workers in comparability surveys; 

Determination of Federal white-collar pay comparability on an area, rather than a national, basis for certain 

types of occupations, such as technical and clerical 

jobs ; and 

" Consideration of employee benefits as well as pay in 

comparability determination. 

The recommendations from the 1972-77 reviews have 

already had direct impact on the Bureau's PATC survey . To 

date, improvements to the study include the establishment 

of national training programs for Bureau field representatives, and expansion of coverage to the mining and construction industries and to smaller establishments in a number 

of manufacturing industries . 

Pressure to consider employee benefits as well as pay 

in the comparability process grew as private-sector 

benefit costs approached 30 percent of total compensation costs in the late 1970's . In 1978, the Bureau began 

construction of a comprehensive data base on employee 

benefits in private industry .°° Developed from a survey 

of detailed employee benefit plan characteristics, the 

data base has been used experimentally by the Office of 

Personnel Management in estimating the effect of implementing a Total Compensation Comparability concept in the determination of Federal employee 

renumeration .'° 

The annual survey of employee benefits was first conducted in 1979, and has become one of the richest sources 

of employee benefit data ever developed. It is nationwide 

in scope and covers the same industries and establishment 

size groups as the PATC survey . Data are collected on employee participation rates and detailed plan provisions for 

such benefits as paid leave, short- and long-term disability 

benefits, health and life insurance, and retirement plans. 

Shifting program priorities . Expansion and contraction of 

the Bureau's wage statistics programs during 1970-84 followed patterns of the past : Growth in periods during which 

the Federal Government had pressing need for more economic intelligence or for data to administer Federal law, 

and cutbacks when dictated by budget constraints . Difficult 

priority decisions on cutbacks in wage programs included 

elimination of the biennial survey of employer expenditures 

for employee compensation ; wage chronologies for about 

30 major collective bargaining situations ; union wage surveys in construction, printing, local transit, local trucking, 

and grocery stores ; municipal government wage surveys in 

the Nation's 27 largest cities (initiated during the early 1970's); 

and FLSA surveys. However, the period also brought development and growth of the quarterly ECt series, construction of a rich data base on employee benefits, and expansion 

of the PATC survey-all contributing to a better understand- 
ing of wages and compensation of the Nation's working 

men and women. 

In retrospect 

There are many omissions in this review of 100 years of 

work by the Bureau in the compilation of wage statistics . 

But the main lines of development have been made clear, 

and it may not be inappropriate to recap briefly the significance of this effort . 

Without the Bureau's surveys and studies, with all their 

limitations, we would know far less than we do about the 

money return for work during the past century in our highly 

complex and dynamic economy. The Bureau has provided 

a reasonably consistent body of information available from 

no other source . This reflects an underlying consistency and 

continuity of program, despite adaptations necessitated by 

fluctuating budgetary levels, special governmental requirements for survey data, changes in the industrial composition 

of the working population, and the increasing complexity 

of the wage bargain. 

In substantial measure, the wage statistics program has 

been shaped by Federal Government needs for information 

for administrative and policy purposes . But, in line with 

general Bureau policy, the results of surveys and studies 

consistently have been made available to the public . They 

have found extensive use over the years in wage determination through collective bargaining and employer personnel 

action, and in university and other private research . El 

FOOTNOTES 

ACKNOWLEDGMENT : The author thanks George L. Stelluto, currently 

Associate Commissioner for Wages and Industrial Relations, Bureau of 

Labor Statistics, for a careful review of the manuscript and for drafting 

the account of the Bureau's work in wage statistics between 1970 and 

1984 . 

' See The Consumer Price Index: Concepts and Content Over the Years, 

Report 517 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 1978). 

2 For a description of the early development of the average hourly and 

weekly earnings by industry series, see Hours and Earnings in the United 

States, 1932-40, Bulletin 697 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1942), pp . 34-

46 . 

3 Railroad mileage more than doubled between 1880 and 1900, reaching 

198,694 miles in the latter year. See U.S . Bureau of the Census, Statistical 

Abstract, 1919, p. 797. 

4 U.S . Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States : 

Colonial Times to 1970, Series D152-166 (Washington. U.S . Government 

Printing Office, 1975), p. 138. 

'See particularly Francis A. Walker, The Wages Question (New York, 

Henry Holt & Co., 1876). 

'Leo Wolman, Ebb and Flow in Trade Unionism (New York, National 

Bureau of Economic Research, 1936), table 5, p. 16 . 

'Joseph Dorfman, The Economic Mind in American Civilization (New 

York, Viking Press, 1949), vol. 3, chap . vi . 

"Prior to 1884, about a dozen States had established labor bureaus, but 

few of these had made any significant effort to compile wage statistics . 

'Joseph D. Weeks, "Report on the Statistics of Wages in Manufacturing 

Industries," Tenth Census, 1880, vol. XX (Washington, U.S . Government 

Printing Office, 1886). 

"'For a general account of Wright's work, see James Leiby, Carroll D. 

Wright and Labor Reform : The Origin of Labor Statistics (Cambridge, 

Mass ., Harvard University Press, 1960) . See also Wendell D. Macdonald, 

"Carroll D. Wright and His Influence on the BLS," Monthly Labor Review, 

January 1955, pp . 3-10 . 

"Commissioner of Labor, Fifth Annual Report, 1889, Railroad Labor, 

table 11, pp . 514-791 . 

"Ibid, p. 75 . 

'e These studies were published as the Sixth and Seventh Annual Reports 

of the Commissioner of Labor, 1890 and 1891, and dealt with the cost of 

production in a number of industries, including iron and steel, coal, textiles, 

and glass. 

"For the 1840-91 wage series compiled by the Bureau for the Aldrich 

Committee, see Wholesale Prices, Wages, and Transportation, Report by 

Aldrich, 52d Cong ., 2d sess ., Report 1394, Mar. 3, 1893, parts 2, 3, and 

4, table XII, pp . 293-1560 . The Bureau also compiled wage rate data for 

15 specified occupations in a large number of cities, and for important 

occupations in a few industries, for the 28-month period June 1889-September 1891 . For these data, see Retail Prices and Wages, Report by 

Aldrich, 52d Cong ., 1st sess ., Report 986, July 19, 1892, part 3, table 

IV, pp . 1903-2009, and table V, pp . 2010-39 . 

"Aldrich Report, Mar. 3, 1893, part 1, p. 11 . 

"Ibid., pp . 110-77 . 

2"E. H. Phelps Brown and Sheila V. Hopkins, "The Course of Wages 

in Five Countries, 1860-1939 ." Oxford University Papers, June 1956, 

pp . 226-95 ; Clarence D. Long, Wages and Earnings in the United States, 

1860-1890 (Princeton, N.1 ., Princeton University Press, 1960) . 

2' Wages in the United States and Europe, 1870-1898, Bulletin 18 

(Bureau of Labor Statistics, September 1898). 

22 Bureau of the Census, Long Term Economic Growth, 1860-1965 

(Washington, U.S . Government Printing Office, 1966), appendix table 

Al, p. 166 . 23 Wolman, Ebb and Flow, table 5, p . 16 . 

21 Commissioner of Labor, Nineteenth Annual Report, 1904, Wages and 

Hours of Labor. 

2'Ibid ., p. 9. 

21Ibid ., p. 20 . 

"Paul H. Douglas, Real Wages in the United States, 1890-1926 (Boston 

and New York, Houghton Mifflin Co ., 1930), p. 75 . "Lombardi goes so far as to say of Wright that "largely as a result of 

his personal contacts with European statisticians at the sessions of the 

International Statistical Congress, of which he was a member, and through 

the influence of his reports, which were widely circulated, every European 

and Australian state created labor bureaus before the opening of the twentieth century." John Lombardi, Labor's Voice in the Cabinet (New York, 

Columbia University Press, 1942), p. 48 . See also E . H. Phelps Brown 

and M. H. Browne, "Carroll D. Wright and the Development of British 

Labour Statistics," Economica, August 1963, pp . 277-86 . 

"Carroll D. Wright, "The Evolution of Wage Statistics," Quarterly 

Journal of Economics, January 1892, pp . 158-59 . 

"Commissioner of Labor, First Annual Report, 1886, Industrial 

Depressions, text table, pp . 143-74 ; appendix A, pp . 295-410 . 

2s For the Douglas index, see ibid, table 24, p. 108. The Douglas series 

on real, but not money, wages in manufacturing for the period 1890-1914 

has been effectively revised by Albert Rees, Real Wages in Manufacturing. 

1890-1914 (Princeton, N.J ., Princeton University Press, 1961) . 

2e See Wages and Hours of Labor in Manufacturing Industries, 1890 to 

1904, Bulletin 59 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, July 1905); similar articles 

for 1905, 1906, and 1907 appeared in Bulletin 65, July 1906; Bulletin 71, 

July 1907 ; and Bulletin 77, July 1908 . 

'° Wages and Hours of Labor in the Cotton, Woolen, and Silk Industries, 

1890-1912, Bulletin 128 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1913). 

" Union Scale of Wages and Hours of Labor, 1907 to 1912, Bulletin 

131 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1913) . 27 
MONTHLY LABOR REVIEW November 1984 * A Century of Wage Statistics : BLS' Contribution 

""Index Numbers of Wages per Hour, 1840 to 1920," Monthly Labor 

Review, February 1921, pp. 73-74. 

""Index Numbers of Wages per Hour, 1840-1934," Monthly Labor 

Review, August 1935, pp . 429-30. 

"Industrial Survey in Selected Industries in the United States, 1919, 

Bulletin 265 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1920). 

"Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970, series D-86 (Washington, U.S . Government Printing 

Office, 1975), p. 135 . The data on the civilian labor force apply to persons 

14 years of age and over . 

36 Handbook of Labor Statistics, 1975-Reference Edition, Bulletin 1865 

(Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1975), table 158, p. 389. 

3' See H. M. Douty, "The Development of Wage-Price Policies," in 

Problems and Policies of Dispute Settlement and Wages Stabilization During World War 11, Bulletin 1009 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1950), pp. 104-

54 . 

H. M. Douty, "Conceptual Problems in the Development of an Adequate 

Program of Occupational Wage Statistics," Proceedings, Industrial Relations Research Association, 1950, pp . 220-30 . 

52 The results of these studies were summarized in Salaries of Office 

Workers in Selected Large Cities, Bulletin 943 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 

1949) . 

53 See H. M. Douty and Toivo P. Kanninen, "Community Approach to 

Wage Studies," Monthly Labor Review, October 1949, pp . 1-6 . 

54 For an account of the Bureau's work for the wage stabilization effort 

during the Korean war, see Wage Stabilization Board, Wage Stabilization 

Program, 1950-1953, vol. II (Washington, Economic Stabilization Agency, 

1953), pp . 181-99 . 

55 See Wage Differentials and Rate Structures Among 40 Labor Markets, 

1951-52, Bulletin 1135 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1953). Summary 

statistics for the 40 areas surveyed will be found in Wages and Related 

Benefits, 40 Labor Markets, 1951-52, Bulletin 1113 (Bureau of Labor 

Statistics, 1952). "The final publication in this series appears to have been Hourly Entrance Rates of Common Laborers in Large Cities, Spring and Summer 

of 1943, Bulletin 775 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1944) . 39 No description of the precise composition of this index has thus far 

been located . 

'The 1936 edition of the Handbook of Labor Statistics, Bulletin 616 

(Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1936), pp . 873-1090, contains brief summaries of Bureau and other wage studies published between 1931 and 

1935 . Similar summaries will be found in the 1941 edition of the Handbook, 

Bulletin 694, vol. II, pp . 21-369, for the years 1936-40. 

4' For Board policy on interplant inequities, see The Termination Report 

of the National War Labor Board, vol. I (Washington, U.S . Government 

Printing Office, 1947), pp . 226-39 . See also Robert J . Myers and Harry 

Ober, "Statistics for Wage Stabilization," Journal of the American Statistical Association, December 1943, pp . 425-37; and Activities of the 

Bureau of Labor Statistics in World War II ( Washington, U. S. Government 

Printing Office, 1947), pp . 86-94. 

"Fact Finding Activities of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bulletin 831 

(Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1945), p. 14 . 

43 Robert J. Myers, Harry Ober, and Lily Mary David, "Wartime Wage 

Movements and Urban Wage Rate Changes," Monthly Labor Review, 

October 1944, pp . 684-704. For the use of the index in appraisal of the 

wage stabilization program, see The Termination Report of the National 

War Labor Board, vol. I, pp. 537-59. 

'Frances Jones Clerc and Eleanor K. Buschman, "Trends in Urban 

Wage Rates, September 1947," Monthly Labor Review, January 1948, 

pp . 45-50. 

"Because of their publication in mimeograph form, the full reports on 

industry wage studies during the immediate postwar period are almost 

fugitive materials. They are on file at the Bureau and may perhaps be 

found in some university and public libraries . They are listed in A Catalogue 

of the Wage Studies of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, January 1945-June 

1948, a Bureau publication in mimeographed form prepared by Edward 

K. Frazier. 

'Harry Ober, "Occupational Wage Differentials, 1907-1947," Monthly 

Labor Review, August 1948, pp. 127-34. 

"Joseph W. Bloch, "Regional Wage Differentials, 1907-46," Monthly 

Labor Review, April 1948, pp . 371-77 . 

°BThe heightened academic interest in wage research is reflected in a 

conference report by Lloyd G. Reynolds (in Research in Wages (New 

York, Social Science Research Council, 1948) . The conference was attended by leading academic students of wages and by Bureau officials 

responsible for the wage statistics program . 

49 See Joseph W. Duncan and William C. Shelton, Revolution in United 

States Government Statistics, 1926-1976 (Washington, U.S . Government 

Printing Office, 1978), pp . 32-70. 

5°Major credit for the adaptation of probability sampling to universes 

of establishments for occupational wage survey purposes belongs to Samuel 

E. Cohen, then statistician in the Bureau's Wage Analysis Branch . 

"Some of the thinking that went into the new program is reflected in 

56 The report of the interagency committee may be found in House 

Committee on Post Office and Civil Service, Hearings on Revision of 

Major Federal Salary Systems, part I, 87th Cong ., 2d sess ., pp . 79-125 . 

57 The summary report on the first . round of surveys in the expanded 

labor market program appeared as Wages and Related Benefits, 60 Labor 

Markets, 1959-60, Bulletin 1265-62 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1961) . 

Coverage was expanded to 80 areas in the following year . For the initial 

report designed for use in Federal salary determination, see National Survey 

of Professional, Administrative, Technical, and Clerical Pay, Winter 1959-

60, Bulletin 1286 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1960). 

"See Toivo P. Kanninen, "New Dimensions in BLS Wage Survey Work," 

Monthly Labor Review, October 1959, table 2, p. 1083, for a tentative list 

of the industries included in the survey proposal . 

"Problems in Measurement of Expenditures on Selected Items of Supplementary Employee Remuneration, Manufacturing Establishments, 1953, 

Bulletin 1186 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1956). 

6°Employer Expenditures for Selected Supplementarv Remuneration 

Practices for Production Workers in Manufacturing Industries, 1959, Bulletin 1308 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1962) . 

6' Employee Compensation in the Private Nonfarm Economy, 1966, Bulletin 1627 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1969). 

62 See Alvin Bauman, "Measuring employee compensation in U .S . industry," Monthly Labor Review, October 1970, pp . 17-23 . 

63 The annual statistical summary of wage changes in major agreements 

has become quite elaborate. See William M. Davis and Joan D. Borum, 

"Wage Adjustments Under Major Bargaining Agreements At All-Time 

Low in 1983," Current Wage Developments, April 1984, pp . 45-69. 

64As an example of a wage chronology, see Wage Chronology: The 

Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. and the B . F. Goodrich Co. (Akron Plants) 

and the Rubber Workers, 1939-1979, Bulletin 2011 (Bureau of Labor 

Statistics, 1979). 

65 See Area Wage Surveys: Metropolitan Areas, United States and Regional Summaries, 1973-74, Bulletin 1795-29 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 

1976), table A-28, pp . 87-88. 

'The Employment Cost Index is published quarterly in news 

releases that are typically issued in January, April, July, and October. 

It also appears in Current Wage Developments and the Monthly 

Labor Review, monthly publications of the Bureau. 

67Report of the Minimum Wage Study Commission, vol. 1, May 1981, 

Preface, pp . XIII-XIV . 

"See George Stelluto, "Federal pay comparability: facts to temper the 

debate," Monthly Labor Review, June 1979, pp . 18-28 . 

69 See Robert Frumkin and William Wiatrowski, "BLS takes a new look 

at employee benefits," Monthly Labor Review, August 1982, pp, 41-45 . 

'Dollar costs were calculated by opm using mathematical and actuarial 

models that took account of the demographic characteristics of the Federal 

work force . See "Total Compensation Comparability : Background, Method, 

Preliminary Results" (U.S . Office of Personnel Management, July 1981) .