Between 1914 and 1969, weekly wages in manufacturing industries in the United States grew by a factor of 12. In the first half of the century, the most significant periods of increase came during the World Wars, as manufacturing industries were at the core of the war effort. However, wages then fell sharply after both World Wars, due to post-war recessions and oversaturation of the job market as soldiers returned home. Interwar period Wage growth during the interwar period was often stagnant, despite the significant economic growth during the Roarin' 20s, and manufacturing wages remained steady at around 24 dollars from 1923 to 1929. This was, again, due to oversaturation of the job market, as employment in the agricultural sector declined due to mechanization and many rural workers flocked to industrial cities in search of employment. The Great Depression then saw the largest and most prolonged period of decline in manufacturing wages. From September 1929 to March 1933, weekly wages fell from 24 dollars to below 15 dollars, and it would take another four years for them to return to pre-Depression levels. Postwar prosperity After the 1945 Recession, the decades that followed the Second World War then saw consistent growth in manufacturing wages in almost every year, as the U.S. cemented itself as the foremost economic power in the world. This period is sometimes referred to as the Golden Age of Capitalism, and the U.S. strengthened its economic presence in Western Europe and other OECD countries, while expanding its political and military presence across Asia. Manufacturing and exports played a major role in the U.S.' economic growth in this period, and wages grew from roughly 40 dollars per week in 1945 to more than 120 dollars by the late 1960s.
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Graph and download economic data for Real Median Family Income in the United States (MEFAINUSA672N) from 1953 to 2024 about family, median, income, real, and USA.
Compared to the mid-20th century, wage increases in the United States' industrial sector did not change as drastically over the preceding 150 years. Industrial wages in the 1800s peaked in the final year of the American Civil War in 1865, and they were double the value of wages in 1830; yet wages did not exceed this value until the following century. Throughout the 1900s, however, the increase was much more pronounced; between 1943 and 1955 alone, industrial wages doubled, and quadrupled by 1972. In fact, wages in 1985 were over five times higher than they were in 1955, and ten times higher than in 1943. The only times during the 20th century when industrial wages fell was during the post-WWI recession in 1921, and again during the Great Depression in the 1930s.
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During the early days of professional baseball, the dominant major leagues imposed a “reserve clause” designed to limit player wages by restricting competition for labor. Entry into the market by rival leagues challenged the incumbent monopsony cartel’s ability to restrict compensation. Using a sample of player salaries from the first 40 years of the reserve clause (1880-1919), this study examines the impact of inter-league competition on player wages. This study finds a positive salary effect associated with rival league entry that is consistent with monopsony wage suppression, but the effect is stronger during the 20th century than the 19th century. Changes in levels of market saturation and minor-league competition may explain differences in the effects between the two eras.
Demobilization following the First World War saw millions of soldiers return to their home countries from the trenches, and in doing so, they brought with them another wave of the deadliest and far-reaching pandemic of all time. As the H1N1 influenza virus, known as the Spanish Flu, spread across the world and infected between one third and a quarter of the global population, it impacted all areas of society. One such impact was on workers' wages, as the labor shortage drove up the demand for skilled workers, which then increased wages. In the United States, wages had already increased due to the shortage of workers caused by the war, however the trend increased further in the two or three years after the war, despite the return of so many personnel from overseas.
In the first fifteen years of the twentieth century, wages across the shown industries had increased gradually and steadily in line with inflation, with the hourly wage in manufacturing increasing from roughly 15 cents per hour to 21 cents per hour in this period. Between 1915 and 1921 or 1921 however, the hourly rate more than doubled across most of these industries, with the hourly wage in manufacturing increasing from 21 cents per hour in 1915 to 56 cents per hour in 1920. Although manufacturing wages were the lowest among those shown here, the trend was similar across even the highest paying trades, with hourly wages in the building trade increasing from 57 cents per hour in 1915 to one dollar and eight cents in 1921. The averages of almost all these trades decreased again in 1922, before plateauing or increasing at a slower rate throughout the late 1920s. Other factors, such as the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and subsequent Great Depression, make comparing this data with wages in later decades more difficult, but it does give some insight into the economic effects of pandemics in history.
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Graph and download economic data for Personal income per capita (A792RC0A052NBEA) from 1929 to 2024 about personal income, per capita, personal, income, GDP, and USA.
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This study contains selected demographic, social, economic, public policy, and political comparative data for Switzerland, Canada, France, and Mexico for the decades of 1900-1960. Each dataset presents comparable data at the province or district level for each decade in the period. Various derived measures, such as percentages, ratios, and indices, constitute the bulk of these datasets. Data for Switzerland contain information for all cantons for each decennial year from 1900 to 1960. Variables describe population characteristics, such as the age of men and women, county and commune of origin, ratio of foreigners to Swiss, percentage of the population from other countries such as Germany, Austria and Lichtenstein, Italy, and France, the percentage of the population that were Protestants, Catholics, and Jews, births, deaths, infant mortality rates, persons per household, population density, the percentage of urban and agricultural population, marital status, marriages, divorces, professions, factory workers, and primary, secondary, and university students. Economic variables provide information on the number of corporations, factory workers, economic status, cultivated land, taxation and tax revenues, canton revenues and expenditures, federal subsidies, bankruptcies, bank account deposits, and taxable assets. Additional variables provide political information, such as national referenda returns, party votes cast in National Council elections, and seats in the cantonal legislature held by political groups such as the Peasants, Socialists, Democrats, Catholics, Radicals, and others. Data for Canada provide information for all provinces for the decades 1900-1960 on population characteristics, such as national origin, the net internal migration per 1,000 of native population, population density per square mile, the percentage of owner-occupied dwellings, the percentage of urban population, the percentage of change in population from preceding censuses, the percentage of illiterate population aged 5 years and older, and the median years of schooling. Economic variables provide information on per capita personal income, total provincial revenue and expenditure per capita, the percentage of the labor force employed in manufacturing and in agriculture, the average number of employees per manufacturing establishment, assessed value of real property per capita, the average number of acres per farm, highway and rural road mileage, transportation and communication, the number of telephones per 100 population, and the number of motor vehicles registered per 1,000 population. Additional variables on elections and votes are supplied as well. Data for France provide information for all departements for all legislative elections since 1936, the two presidential elections of 1965 and 1969, and several referenda held in the period since 1958. Social and economic data are provided for the years 1946, 1954, and 1962, while various policy data are presented for the period 1959-1962. Variables provide information on population characteristics, such as the percentages of population by age group, foreign-born, bachelors aged 20 to 59, divorced men aged 25 and older, elementary school students in private schools, elementary school students per million population from 1966 to 1967, the number of persons in household in 1962, infant mortality rates per million births, and the number of priests per 10,000 population in 1946. Economic variables focus on the Gross National Product (GNP), the revenue per capita per household, personal income per capita, income tax, the percentage of active population in industry, construction and public works, transportation, hotels, public administration, and other jobs, the percentage of skilled and unskilled industrial workers, the number of doctors per 10,000 population, the number of agricultural cooperatives in 1946, the average hectares per farm, the percentage of farms cultivated by the owner, tenants, and sharecroppers, the number of workhorses, cows, and oxen per 100 hectares of farmland in 1946, and the percentages of automobiles per 1,000 population, radios per 100 homes, and cinema seats per 1,000 population. Data are also provided on the percentage of Communists (PCF), Socialists, Radical Socialists, Conservatives, Gaullists, Moderates, Poujadists, Independents, Turnouts, and other political groups and p
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Russia Population: Percent of Total: Household Income per Capita: 14000.1 - 19000 RUB per Month data was reported at 13.800 % in Dec 2018. This records a decrease from the previous number of 14.400 % for Sep 2018. Russia Population: Percent of Total: Household Income per Capita: 14000.1 - 19000 RUB per Month data is updated quarterly, averaging 15.400 % from Dec 2011 (Median) to Dec 2018, with 29 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 16.300 % in Mar 2014 and a record low of 13.800 % in Dec 2018. Russia Population: Percent of Total: Household Income per Capita: 14000.1 - 19000 RUB per Month data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Federal State Statistics Service. The data is categorized under Russia Premium Database’s Demographic and Labour Market – Table RU.GA013: Population by Average Household Income.
Compared to Western Europe, the development of average incomes differed between Scandinavia and and East-Central Europe between 1900 and 1950. Over these five decades, income in Scandinavia gradually caught up with the rest of Western Europe, eventually overtaking it by the middle of the century. By contrast, income across East-Central Europe fell further behind the west over this period, falling from 42 percent of the west's rate in 1900 to 37 percent in 1950.
In 1900, GDP per capita in Southern Europe was just over half of the rate in Western Europe, while it was just 39 percent across Central and Eastern Europe. By 1950, Central and Eastern Europe's GDP per capita had risen to 51 percent of Western Europe's, while Southern Europe's GDP per capita had fallen to 44 percent. Post-war recovery across the south was comparatively slower than the West due to the lack of American investment in the fascist states of Spain and Portugal, the civil war in Greece, and the lack of industrialization in Italy. As these factors reversed or concluded in the 1950s, Southern Europe's economic development fell more in line with that of the rest of Western Europe in this decade, with Italy, in particular, emerging as one of the world's leading economies.
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Wages in Macedonia increased 10.60 percent in July of 2025 over the same month in the previous year. This dataset provides - Macedonia Real Wage Growth- actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.
This table contains 11 series, with data for years 1926 - 1960 (not all combinations necessarily have data for all years), and was last released on 2009-01-21. This table contains data described by the following dimensions (Not all combinations are available): Geography (1 items: Canada ...), Income-based estimates (11 items: Gross domestic product (GDP) at market prices; Net domestic income at factor cost; Wages; salaries and supplementary labour income; Corporation profits before taxes ...).
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Graph and download economic data for Real gross domestic product per capita (A939RX0Q048SBEA) from Q1 1947 to Q2 2025 about per capita, real, GDP, and USA.
At the turn of the twentieth century, the wealthiest one percent of people in the United Kingdom controlled 71 percent of net personal wealth, while the top ten percent controlled 93 percent. The share of wealth controlled by the rich in the United Kingdom fell throughout the twentieth century, and by 1990 the richest one percent controlled 16 percent of wealth, and the richest ten percent just over half of it.
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View economic output, reported as the nominal value of all new goods and services produced by labor and property located in the U.S.
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Between 1914 and 1969, weekly wages in manufacturing industries in the United States grew by a factor of 12. In the first half of the century, the most significant periods of increase came during the World Wars, as manufacturing industries were at the core of the war effort. However, wages then fell sharply after both World Wars, due to post-war recessions and oversaturation of the job market as soldiers returned home. Interwar period Wage growth during the interwar period was often stagnant, despite the significant economic growth during the Roarin' 20s, and manufacturing wages remained steady at around 24 dollars from 1923 to 1929. This was, again, due to oversaturation of the job market, as employment in the agricultural sector declined due to mechanization and many rural workers flocked to industrial cities in search of employment. The Great Depression then saw the largest and most prolonged period of decline in manufacturing wages. From September 1929 to March 1933, weekly wages fell from 24 dollars to below 15 dollars, and it would take another four years for them to return to pre-Depression levels. Postwar prosperity After the 1945 Recession, the decades that followed the Second World War then saw consistent growth in manufacturing wages in almost every year, as the U.S. cemented itself as the foremost economic power in the world. This period is sometimes referred to as the Golden Age of Capitalism, and the U.S. strengthened its economic presence in Western Europe and other OECD countries, while expanding its political and military presence across Asia. Manufacturing and exports played a major role in the U.S.' economic growth in this period, and wages grew from roughly 40 dollars per week in 1945 to more than 120 dollars by the late 1960s.