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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - Appendices - 6. Pre-War Conditions of the Negro Wage Earner in Selected Industries and Occupations - 5. Lumber
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1094 An American Dilemma
using forceful means against such financially weak operators*^ and have, for the most
part, concentrated their efforts on the larger mills—^with great success, as we see from
the statistics.
There is no evidence concerning the extent to which there has been any displacement
of labor because of the wage increase. Owing to the present war boom, employment has
so far increased rather than decreased. What is going to happen after the war, however,
is a different matter entirely. Unless this wage increase is wiped out by inflation
—
which may well happen—it is hard to visualize how it could fail to bring about, even-
tually, considerable mechanization as well as elimination of financially weak establish-
ments.
The hourly earnings tended to be somewhat lower for Negro than for white lumber
workers. Such a difference usually appears even when Negroes and whites in the same
occupational sub-group are compared (Table 6). This does not prove, however, that
TABLE 6
Occupations in Lumber Mills (Sawmills, Logging, Maintenance and Service Branches) by
Average Hourly Earnings of White Workers, and Difference Between
Average Earnings of White and Negro Workers, in the
South: 1939-1940
(The original data are based on establishments with 20 or more employees.)
Number of occupations which average hourly earnings for
Negroes were:
Lower than earnings of whites
Average hourly Higher Equalto by specified amounts
eammgs of
white workers
by occupation
All
occupa-
tions*
than
for
whites
earnings
of
whites
o.s-
1.9
cents
2.0-
3.9
cents
4.0-
59
cents
6.0-
7.9
cents
8.0
cents &
over
Total 60 5 3 21 IX 6 4 xo
Under 35.0 cents 38 5 3 19 10 X .
.
35 >0-39.9 cents 12 .
.
3 I 5 3 X
40.0-44.9 cents 5 ,
.
,
.
I 4
45 cents or more 5 5
Source: Adapted from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, unpublished tabulations. September. 1941. (Per-
mission to publish table obtained from Acting Commissioner A. P. Hinrichs.)
* Only occupations which had 3$ or more Negro and 3$ or more white representatives in the sample were
included
Negroes are paid less on an hourly basis when performing the same duties as white
workers in the same establishments. It is possible that these wage differentials in specified
occupational groups are caused by the tendency of low wage establishments to hire a
greater proportion of Negroes than do high wage establishments. Besides, in most of
the cases, these differences are rather small, except—and this is rather significant—in
occupations where wages are far above the general average. The only chance for a Negro
to get into a high wage occupation usually is to accept a wage considerably lower than
that paid to white employees for the same kind of work. Yet, the main reason why
Negroes, by and large, have lower pay than whites is that they are relatively more
concentrated in low wage work.** The proportion of Negroes is particularly low in
^ Ibid.y Part i, pp. 84-85.
^
In part, there is a reversed causation. The wage differential between ‘‘high” and “low”
occupations, as we have seen, is more pronounced in the South than elsewhere. In other words,
the wages for unskilled work are particularly low in the South because most of the unskilled
workers are Negroes.
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