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Footnotes 1281
workers, as against 22 per cent of the white workers in 1935, had wage incomes of less
than $200 per year; more than half the female Negro workers had wages below the
limit.® This means, of course, that a substantial proportion even of the covered Negro
workers are not going to get any old age benefits at all, if present regulations are to be
maintained.
The benefits range between $10 and $85, depending upon the number of dependents,
the years of coverage and tlie average previous wage income. The last two stipulations
mean that Negro average benefits must be lower than are those for whites. (A large
number of covered workers moves between covered and uncovered occupations. Since
the field of uncovered occupations is larger for Negroes than it is for whites, they are
more likely to have spent considerable time outside the system of old age insurance.)
Even persons with fairly low previous wage incomes, however, receive benefits which,
at least in the South, must appear high compared to average relief benefits under many
other social welfare programs. For instance, a worker who has had an average monthly
wage of $50 and a coverage of five years will receive for himself and his wife, when
both have reached the age of 65, a monthly benefit of $31.50.*^ There are additional
benefits for children under 16 (sometimes 18) years of age. There are benefits, as well,
for surviving wives and children.
Unemployment compensation has limitations in coverage similar to those of the
Old Age and Survivors* Insurance. In the rural South, of course, Negroes have little
help from the unemployment insurance. Although the system is fairly uniform, benefits
may vary to some extent.® In the South, most clients receive between $5 and $10 per
month; in most other states the majority of recipients get benefits in excess of $10.**
Social Work Yearbook^ ^94^^ op* cit., p. 61 1.
Ibid,
y
p. 609, and Virginius Dabney, Below the Potomac (1942), p. 114.
Social Work Yearbook^ 1941 y of, cit,y p. 612.
Even in Virginia, where conditions are probably better than in many other
Southern states, there remains much to be done. The state labor commissioner officially
refers to the “inadequacy of the State safety laws** and refers, among other things,
to the fact that, for factories and buildings for public use, there are no legal “standards
and controls over the width, pitch and general repair of stairways or the condition of
floors . . . aisles, passageways, ladders, platforms, and scaffolding.** (Department of
Labor and Industry, State of Virginia, Forty-third Annual Reforty Industrial Statistiesy
Calendar Yeary ig^g [1941], p. 21.)
Sixteenth Census of the United States: i940y Pofulationy Preliminary Release,
Series P-io, No. 6.
Sterner and Associates, of. cit.y pp. 272-274.
California paid $34 per month in 1939-194O; several Northern states, as well
as the District of Columbia, paid between $20 and $30. In the South, on the other
hand, there were eight states which paid less than $10.
Sterner and Associates, of, cit,y p. 280.
Ibid.y pp. 282-283. The last percentage was between one-and-a-half and two
• Idem,
^Social Work Yearbooky of, cit.y p. 384.
^ lbid,y p. 570.
® Social Security Board, “Operation of the Employment Security Board,” Social Security
Bulletin (October, 1941), p. 63.
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