Appalachias traditionally small, locally owned mines started merging with larger energy firms in the 1960s, and by 1970 bituminous coal employment had dropped to 140,000 people from its 1923 peak of 740,000. Source: Shows the average hourly wage of a variety of jobs both in and outside of Paris. Shows average charge per case for appendicitis, childbirth, heart troubles, cancer, dental problems and more. Source: BLS, Shows the average retail prices of food, clothing, and fuel prices in Shanghai. At suppertime, youngsters like Frank would sit with the men on a pile of slate and listen as veterans of the mine would sing songs, spin yarns, and tell jokes; they would rib the boys, trick them for laughs, and tell them tall tales of the devilish apparitions that appeared to them down in the hole. The struggle between workers and managers in the workplace played out vividly in the Pennsylvania coal mines. Conversely, a dollar earned in 1928 had the same buying power as abut $15 in the year 2020. No. Shows price list of one California retailer. Industries and occupations included are toilers, manufacturing, construction, mining, and more. Coal industry labor strikes were common from the turn of the century up through the 1930s, as were catastrophic workplace injuries and the prevalence of black lung disease. Source: BLS, Shows the minimum hourly wages of various occupations in Brussels. Hourly employees were bound to the ten-hour day, but the coal loaders, or tonnage men, often worked fewer hours and sometimes exercised the right to leave the mine without permission. Compares wage rates and hours of work for the WWI and WWII eras, focusing specifically on the manufacturing, mining, railroad, printing and maritime industries, as well as farm labor wages. Government Documents Department, Ellis Library of Agriculture report. Wages are shown in contemporary US dollars.
Meal time was cold, cramped, and wet. Source: Click "more" for direct links to each occupation. Prices are shown in Japanese yen. Recognizable name brand items in the price lists include Canada Dry Ginger Ale, Quaker Oats, Cream of Wheat, Hershey's Cocoa, Aunt Jemima Pancake Flour, Mazola Oil, Wesson Oil, Coleman's Mustard, Post Toasties, Morton's Salt, Knox Gelatin, Sun Maid Raisins, Palmolive soap, Log Cabin syrup, Del Monte canned goods, Heinz ketchup, Gold Medal flour, Carnation Milk, Life Savers candy, Bon Ami scouring powder, Lucky Strike cigarettes, Camel cigarettes, Scott Tissue toilet paper, and many other brand name items. Source: Describes the labor policy of Australia in the 1920's and throughout the rest of the early 20th century. "75 Years of American Finance: A Graphic Presentation 1861-1935" Link navigates to a record containing multiple years worth of this publication. Source: BLS Bulletins. Without a match he walked, hands held in front of his body, until, by chance, someone found him and gave him a light. (Jack Corn/EPA) A ppalachian coal production has been on shaky ground almost since the industry's inception in the mid 19th century. Mule drivers and trapper boys like Frank Keeney set out at six oclock every morning with the adult miners, who each carried a pick and auger, a can of black blasting powder, fuses, and a tamping rod. Source: Monthly price list for Ralph's Grocery Company, which sold only in the Los Angeles area. Miners would lie on their backs and use a pick to undercut the coal. 358, Average hours and earnings by occupation and district. Shows expenditures by category with prices per article and amounts needed annually for a family of five. Source: BLS, Shows the average retail prices of foodstuffs in Madrid and Barcelona. Source: BLS, Shows the average daily wages of day laborers, farm hands, clerks, bookkeepers, government employees, and army members in Lithuania. From, Average monthly wages by state,with and without board. Former Timeline picture editor. Shows the standard wages for different shift at ports in Antwerp, Belgium. Miners left their pits to fight the attempt of the Thatcher government to close the collieries, break the miners' union and the labour movement in general, and open the way to a free market economy in which deregulated financial capitalism would be set free by the Big Bang of 1986. Few words meant more to mine workers than manliness, a quality that connoted dignity, respectability, defiant egalitarianism, and patriarchal male supremacy, in the words of historian David Montgomery. Work clothes, work shirts, dress shirts, dress pants, trousers, vests, suits, dress gloves, overcoats, winter coats, fur caps and collars, neck ties, belts and suspenders, caps and hats, nightwear, socks, shoes, boots, pocket knives, pocket watches, toupes, razors, smoking pipes. West Virginias mine safety laws were the weakest in the nation. Source: BLS, Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, No. Shows the average weekly hours and hourly wages for workers in the boot and shoe industry. Source: The tables show pay for employees engaged in the manufacture of automobiles, trucks, car bodies and parts. Includes breakouts for adults and. Telephones, radios, cameras, kitchen ranges, home electric appliances, record players, music records, sewing machines, fabrics, clothes washers, laundry supplies, vacuum sweepers. Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. Source: BLS, Shows the average retail prices of staple foodstuffs in Madrid, Spain. 525. The deal, brokered by. Data available for additional years inMissouri Farm Census by Counties, Missouri State Dept of Agriculture. 5-6. Boys learned the mining craft from their fathers and later passed this knowledge on to their own sons. Shows family expenditures by category. After undercutting the face, the collier turned the crank on a five-and-a-half-foot-long breast auger and pushed with all his weight to bore a hole high on the face. Bicycles, binoculars, footballs & basketball supplies, ice skates, athletic gear, boxing, baseball, & tennis supplies, fishing tackle, camping gear, guns. Wages are shown in Austrian kronen. Earnings and prices are shown in Swiss francs. Shows the average weekly wages for a variety of occupations and industries in New Zealand. Source: BLS Monthly Labor Review (July 1930). Source: Covers elementary schools and junior high schools in American cities with populations of 2,500 or more. 297. Wages are shown in German marks. Includes breakouts for those who lived with the family and those who did not. Wages are shown in Spanish pesetas. Source: BLS, Shows the daily wages and hours of workers in 4 different industries in Madrid. Use "search in this text" feature to navigate (or contact us for assistance).
Prices and Wages by Decade: 1920-1929 - University of Missouri A man sometimes had to get down on his hands and knees, with his left shoulder, well padded, against the car, bracing himself with his toes against the ties and the dirt of the floor, wrote a former miner, while his partner controlled the brakes to keep the car from rolling back on the pusher if he slipped or grew tired. Back injuries, broken legs, and severed feet and fingers were common. Source: BLS, Shows the hourly wages for men and women in Finnish unions. Source:Federal Reserve Bank of Saint Louis. Table shows average 1929 and 1931 weekly wages of full-time store employees, managers, and supervisors by kind and size of chain and location. Tables are broken down by occupation, sex, and state. Source: BLS Bulletin no. Source: Howard University, States "the average student probably spends about $700 per year for a college education" and shows, This source shows the cost of funerals and burial in 18 states and in 10 major cities. Shows salaries for officers, managers, clerks, operators, etc. All of these mines included a main entry, or portal, and a second tunnel, or monkey drift, which provided workers with ventilationa barely adequate suction through a surface grate created by a coal fire that burned all day. But on some weeks, a miner might work only two or three days because the railroad failed to supply enough coal cars, or because the mine needed repairs. Study showed how much a family of five would need to live in Washington DC in 1920.
The Miners' Strike of 1984-5: an oral history The following is from James Greens The Devil is Here in These Hills. Source: BLS. About half of the surveyed penal institutions gave prisoners some compensation, based on its use as incentive toward good work and better behavior, and to provide the convict with a small way to provide for his family. In some cases, when a shot backfired out of the hole, it ignited coal dust or gas in the miners room and sent fire bursting into the main tunnel, where it could burn or suffocate the mules and their drivers passing through. HOUSING, FARMS and UTILITIES Shows the average weekly earnings by industry and occupation. Discussion puts wage data in context with price levels which were definitely affected by the wars. Then, with their lamps casting a dim yellow light on the dark hillside, the men and boys disappeared one by one into the hole, like ants entering a colony. In 1984 there were 174 deep coal mines in the UK by 1994 - the year the industry was finally privatized - there were just 15 left. In the late 1800s mining was rough physical labor. Under these terms, a hard worker could earn $2.00 for ten to twelve hours of labor, if the work was steady. For example, the 1920 volume gives rates in Ohio and Minnesota, Illinois and Indiana, and more. In 1925, motor vehicles were scrapped at an average age of 6.5 years. Handkerchiefs, slippers, watches, umbrellas, hair brushes and combs, Christmas decorations. Source: BLS, Shows the average daily wages and hours of a variety of occupations in Madrid. At dawn, the workers reported to the payroll clerk in the company office, where they were handed numbered brass checks to attach to each coal car they loaded. Source: BLS Monthly Labor Review (April 1931). Source: 1934 Statistical Abstract of the United States. Source: Shows the weekly wages of various occupations in Vienna. Coffee cost an average 47 per pound in 1920. Wages shown in contemporary US dollars. Believed to be the worst coal mine disaster ever, an explosion at the Bnxh mine in Liaoning province killed 1,549 people in 1942. Stealing another mans coal was considered a terrible crime. A thief could commit this offense easily, simply by removing one miners brass check from his coal car and replacing it with his own; but the miners often detected this kind of trickery and banded together to demand the thiefs termination. Use the following hyperlinks to see values for AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY. how much did coal miners get paid in the 1950s. For easier browsing, the information is. During the Great Depression output was nearly halved from 680 million tons to 360 million. Management's steam whistle now set the times. Created by Grove Atlantic and Electric Literature, Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window), A Novel of Putin's Russia That Got Its Writer Beaten Up, What Should You Read Next? 7-8 in: Extensive, 219-page report published in the Bureau of Labor StatisticsBulletin no. Source: U.S. BLS Bulletin, no. Source: BLS. 365-372. It is not yet available to read online; check your local library for a printed copy. Wages shown in 1931 US dollars. Compares to national averages. Shows expenditures among rural Virginia families for food, housing, clothing, automobiles, health insurance, recreation, personal items and more. Every workday a panel of miners, ranging from fourteen to twenty-eight men, passed through a main entry and then turneddown a side entry. These were the underground attitudes Frank Keeney absorbed as he entered manhood as a coal miner. Jump directly to prices for: meats and eggs, butter, cheese, milk, bread and flour, corn meal, rice, potatoes, granulated sugar, coffee and tea, onions, navy beans, prunes, raisins, canned salmon, evaporated milk, margarine, lard, oats, corn flakes, wheat cereal, macaroni, canned baked beans, canned corn, canned peas, canned tomatoes, bananas, oranges, and more. Safety sign in eight languages, about 1910. After the top fell, they returned to break and load the fallen coal before another layer of the top came crashing down with a tremendous roar. Industrial home work was most common in clothing manufacturing and tobacco industries (rolling cigars, etc.) The craftiness and deftness of the best colliers was most evident when they performed the riskiest task of all. His salary was paid entirely by coal companies. From. Source: BLS Monthly Labor Review, July 1930. April 26, 1942. In 1927, "$30 per month was taken as the average minimum expenditure for rent in Boston for the [working class] family of four living on the American standard.". Wages are shown in German marks. 8836. This was the world Frank Keeney entered as a boy. Source: BLS, Shows the average wage rates for 19 different occupations in Hamburg, Germany. $180 - $5k. Kanawha County coal seams were relatively thick, so men could often stand or just bend slightly, but some coal cutters had to work bent over all day in low coal. After sorting out the slate fragments and loading the car, the miner attached his brass check to the side of the car and pushed it out into the main tunnel, where mules or a small locomotive pulled the load out of the mine to the weigh station and then to the tipple, where the coal would be prepared and funneled into railroad cars. See "Blood donation" in. Farm laborers in Missouri earned an average $41.90/month in 1921. Three decades earlier a boy about the same agea newly emancipated slavehad worked in the same minefield. Data was originally published in the Industrial Bulletin of the State Department of Labor. Shows police department salaries for cities over 100,000 population. Article compares the cost of renting versus buying a home in 1928. Coal mine owners and superintendents rarely went underground. Source: BLS. As the men removed one pillar after another, the wooden posts used to support the mine top would be strained as the roof started getting heavy. The wood would then creak and groan and then splinter as the miners heard the roof working above their heads and planned their retreat accordingly.
PDF Wage Chronology: Anthracite Mining Industry, 1930-66 : Bulletin of the Source: Compares 1922 to1940 wage rates for a variety of RR jobs, pp. Wages are expressed in both foreign currency and dollars. Source: BLS, Shows the retail prices of food and commodities in various cities throughout south Manchuria. Workers, Kohinoor mine, Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, 1884, Managers, Kohinoor mine, Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, 1884. Source: For each college, this table shows tuition for residents and non-residents by course of study. Working in coal mines is dangerous miners have to deal with toxic . Boys younger than 12 often worked beside their fathers underground because, in many communities, it was the only paying job available. Source: BLS, The explanation states: "real wage rates have been computed by the Statistical Office on the basis of the official German cost-of-living index. Wages shown in litas, and US dollars in parentheses. Includes clam, lobster, oyster industries and more. Cottage and bungalow home designs with illustrations and floor plans in the "Wardway homes" catalog. Source: You may download a pdf version of the 1928, Hotel rates are shown in the advertisements in. Shows prices by month and year. Source: AAUP report. See also "C" tab above for carpenters, cement workers, etc. One statute required operators to print maps of their mines, but it excluded any provisions for enforcing this requirement. Wages are shown in Danish ore. 484. Lists wages paid to auto mechanics, office workers, window cleaners, barbers and hairdressers, bartenders in saloons, domestic servants, people working in social agencies, and more. Washington, D.C. Email powered by MailChimp (Privacy Policy & Terms of Use), The American Twins, Harpers Weekly, 1874, African American History Curatorial Collective. Miscellaneous:
Covers more than 1,200 cities. By the 1940s, the United Mine Workers union had established better wages and somewhat safer conditions for miners, though a contentious relationship between workers and bosses persisted. Tells cost of public transportation and railway fares as well. The following two tables shows the average daily earnings of industrial and building workers by occupation as well as in Moscow, Leningrad, and the Ural mountain region. Owners claimed property rights and managerial entitlements over the workplace. 514. Shows salaries at the state, county and city levels.
A Day in the Life of a West Virginia Coal Miner Literary Hub COST OF LIVING Knickerbockers, shirts, high school boy's suits, boy's fine suits, overcoats, winter coats, jackets, pajamas, rain coats, caps and hats, shoes. ), carriages, cribs, high chairs, etc. Acquiring a sense of humor helped mask a workers dread of the mine, but joking was no substitute for learning how to be careful. Report published in 1923 tells wages by race and by industry. In West Virginia's colliers, miners were paid 49 cents per ton of clean coal, compared with 76 cents in the unionized mines of Ohio. Source: Discusses average prices American families were paying for medical care and hospital trips. Report published in 1923 gives wages for Arkansas women by occupation and race. Source: U.S. Dept. . Following legal tradition, companies usually placed blame and responsibility for injuries on the workers. Then the men and boys would gather their tools and trudge down the mountainside to their little cabins to wash off the coal dust that smudged their faces, necks, arms, and hands, and to sit down for an evening meal.
how much did coal miners get paid in the 1950s Coal miners homemade prosthetic leg, about 1950. Source: Table shows 52 years of time-series prices on individual foods, such as. In the US, coal mining is a shrinking industry. Source: BLS, Shows the average daily wages for workers in different occupations in French coal mines. Shows average public employee pay for each state. Includes a table showing. Shows pay for those involved in "1st class New York City productions" including actors of various levels (from chorus to leads) as well as directors, designers, scene painters, stage hands, etc. Fixtures, chamberpots, bathroom soaps, towels, toilet paper. Coal Miners Between 1880 and 1920, southern West Virginia's population grew from 93,000 to 446,000, due almost entirely to the coal industry. Also tells pay for court clerks and marshals. 613.
What was the salary for a coal miner in the 1950s? - Answers Published by the National Industrial Conference Board. Managers liked immigrants because they worked for low wages. After they loaded coal from the fallen pillars, the colliers and their helpers pushed their cars out into the main entry as fast as possible before sections of the roof collapsed. Source: BLS Monthly Labor Review (June 1931), Shows the average hours and daily wages of various workers in quarries, sawmills, and many other industries throughout Virginia. Wages are shown in Sweden kronor. A standard tune in miners lore began with lyric, Youve been docked and docked again, boys / Youve been loading two for one, and asked what the miner had to show for working so hard. See p. 193 of this. Covers elementary, junior high, and high school teachers in American cities with populations of 2,500 or more. Source: BLS. "A good hotel room costs only $4-5 per day while a hospital charges $6 and $7." Source: This short article about wages in Nanking, China reports barbers' earnings in US dollars. Source: Federal Power Commission. Wages shown in 1930 US dollars. Scroll forward and back to see the various cities for which average food prices are available. Source: Shows pay for state carpenters, stage electricians, props men, show directors, agents, ushers and more. On one hand, the miners discipline and death-defying courage made them ideal industrial soldiers; on the other hand, the qualities the men forged in underground combat with the elementsbravery, fraternal fealty, and group solidarityhardened them for aboveground combat with their employers. Source: Report of the Salary survey commission to the Pennsylvania General assembly, 1929.
Coal Mine Worker Hourly Pay | PayScale This mammoth work lists typical earnings as well as job descriptions and working conditions for thousands of occupations just before the Great Depression. The study pays particular attention to women who made less than the average wage. In the late 1800s mining was rough physical labor. Source: BLS. Data gathered by the National Industrial Conference Board using foreign government sources. Wages are in contemporary US dollars.
China's worst coal mine disasters - The China Project