Salaries and Wages in Our Ancestors' Times (1860-1900)
The postmaster's job was a coveted one, paying better than most other work. It was a patronage job, though, which meant one could lose his job after an election. This is from an 1899 illustration.
Sometimes around 1868 my great-great-great grandfather bailed his son-in-law’s business out to the tune of $1,000. This was a significant amount. But how significant? How do we “translate” that to an equivalent sum today to have a better understanding of how generous he was? We can run the sum through an inflation calculator on the internet, of course, and see that $1,000 in 1868 is worth about $21,700 today. Or is it?
The MeasuringWorth website calculates the relative worth of a sum in various ways. There is the relative worth, if spent on a purchase, which they calculate at $22,381 for that $1,000 - which seems too low, for reasons I’ll explain shortly. Received as compensation, however, their equivalent is $321,250 – which seems way too high.
The CPI Inflation Calculator uses official records published by the Department of Labor. Data prior to 1913 is estimated by Dr. Robert Sahr of Oregon State University and the American Antiquarian Society. I don’t have a PhD in public policy, as Dr. Sahr does, or one in economics. I can’t pretend to understand how their various calculations are arrived at.
What I can say is that in the decade when Myron F. Barbour helped his son-in-law Henry Lipes, the postmaster in Nashville, Tennessee made $2,000 a year. At the U.S. Arsenal in Pennsylvania in 1862, a master carpenter made $780 and a cooper made $480. In 1867, according to statistics collected by the Hon. Amasa Walker of Massachusetts the average minister salary in 1867 was $907. (Not reported was which states he gathered his data from.) One thing that is clear is that $1,000 was more than a lot of people made in a whole year. We could probably safely say that is was more than most made in a year.
Wages, taken in sheer dollar amounts, can also be challenging to compare because many people received room and board with their job. The employees of orphanages, insane asylums, hospitals, prisons and other institutions were provided with housing and meals. Domestics, hotel employees and many restaurant workers lived with their employer. Ministers often were provided with a parsonage. But of course not all jobs provided room and board, and the postmaster’s job, for instance, would not have.
The $1,000 valued at $21,381 sounds too low to me because people supported families on less than $1,000 a year, and without a job that provided housing. But the $1,000 as compensation being equal to over $300,000 sounds ludicrously high. I don’t think postmasters were being paid so lavishly that their salaries were worth over $600,000. (Please correct me if I’m wrong.)
Of course another way of looking at wages and values is how much has to be spent on survival needs. An economics historian studied the effects of early industrialization in the Brandywine Valley in Pennsylvania and Delaware from 1800 to 1860, using salary records primarily from two major companies. “In very rough terms we estimate that the proportion of earnings devoted to the necessities of food and lodging fell from barely three-fourths of earnings to a little over one-half of earnings between 1810 and 1859, averaging a bit over three-fifths,” he said. That is another important measure to take into consideration.
I took a look at wages reported in newspapers in different regions of the country from 1860 to 1900. It helps build some understanding. There are a number of interesting items to note. The city of Buffalo in 1895 paid double what the state of Texas did for what were listed as identical or similar jobs. For example, the Texas Superintendent of Public Instruction, responsible for the whole state, had a salary of $2,500 while the head of the Buffalo schools was paid $5,000.
Women were shut out of almost all professional jobs and skilled trades. The work they were allowed to do did not pay enough for a single mother to support her family. Clerical work, which is almost exclusively done by women today, was a male profession until after 1900. In addition, most women’s work required a childless woman, or one whose children were grown, as she was given room and board with her employer. There were no accommodations for her children. Some want ads made this especially clear by asking for an "unencumbered" woman. A quick glance at “women’s work” - matron, nurse, seamstress, washerwoman, cook, shows how little they were paid. In the few jobs that were the same as men’s, they were typically paid one-third to one-half less, as in teaching or working as an attendant in an institution. This is why it was a popular trope in stories of newsboys out peddling the newspaper to help support a widowed mother. It was reality.
Unskilled male laborers, to be fair, were paid almost as little. As Mintz and McNeil said, “In the late 19th century, the average income of an urban worker was only about $400 or $500 a year, a sum insufficient to support a family. The remainder was made up by wives and especially by older children. Children under the age of 16 contributed about 20 percent of the income. These children worked not because their parents were heartless, but because their earnings were absolutely essential for their family's well-being.”
There are surprises. Janitors, also called custodians, were paid better than many positions. It may have been because they were responsible for maintaining the furnace in the building and were considered more a building superintendent rather than just someone who cleans. At least in 1886 in Boston, train conductors were paid more than the engineer.
Following is a collection from different parts of the country and different decades as to how much people were being paid. It was easiest to track public servants since their salaries are a matter of public record.
By any measure, my ancestor was very generous when he gave his son-in-law $1,000.
For decades children, especially boys, were sent out in the streets of big cities, mainly peddling newspapers and shining shoes to support widowed mothers or to supplement the family income. What they brought home wasn't pocket money; it was essential to paying the bills. Note the competition -- and the desperation in the boys' faces.
1860s
Postmasters In 1860:
Nashville: $2,000 annually.
Knoxville: $1,750
Columbia: $1,446
(Postmaster salaries varied according to gross income of the post office.)
U.S. Arsenal in 1862:
Clerks: $600 to $1,400
Master Carpenter: $780
Assistant Carpenters: $480
Coopers $468
Night Watchman: $480
Wagon drivers: $780
Laborers: $400
U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1864:
Entomologist: $2,000
Chemist: $2,000
Draughtsman: $1,400
Messenger: $600
Laborers: $400
In the private sector, a New York Daily Herald advertisement in 1867 for carpenters announced payment at $3.50/day. People worked a six-day week. Assuming there was work all 52 weeks that would be an annual salary of $1,248 with no time off.
Survey of Ministers’ Salaries 1867:
Hon. Amasa Walker of Massachusetts collected statistics on minister’s salaries, receiving reports from 1,000. In 1860 the average salary was $772; in 1867 it rose to $907.
Louisville Circuit Court 1868:
Circuit Court judges: $1,800-2,200
Schools in Pittston, Pennsylvania in 1869:
Note: Teachers were (and are) only paid for the months school is in session.
Male teachers were paid $60 a month for class sizes of 47 to 67
Women were paid $20-30 a month for class sizes of 61 to 86, though one woman teacher had 45 students.
The principal of West Pittston Seminary, a private school with 200 students, made $1,800.
1870s
City of New Orleans 1870:
Insane Asylum
Superintendent: $1,800
Day watchman: $720
Night watchman: $480
Nurse: $240
Cook: $240
Waterworks
Bookkeeper: $2,500
Plumber: $1,200
Blacksmith: $1,200
Coal wheeler: $720
Porter: $300
Workhouse
Chief warden: $1,500
Clerk: $900
Boys House of Refuge
Superintendent: $1,200
Matron: $480
Teacher: $480
Gatekeeper: $300
Cook: $180
Girls House of Refuge
Teacher: $300
Chicago Private Employers, 1874
Wilcox, Stevens & Co., Planing Mill
Men’s wages: $1.50 per day
Boy’s wages: $1.00
Armour, Dole & Co.
Carpenters, $2.25 per day
Stonemasons and bricklayers - $3.00
Common laborers: $1.50 (9-hour day)
Vogler & Geudtner (trunk manufacturers)
Men: $2.50-$3.00 per day
Boys: $10 per month
Northside Brassworks
Apprentices: $6 per week
Skilled workmen: $2.75/day
J.S. Kirk & Co. (soap manufacturers)
Employees: $2.00-$3.00/day
1880s
Surprisingly, in many of the larger big-city churches members of the choir were paid. In St. Louis, singers in Catholic churches were volunteers. At the Episcopal church, they used a boys’ choir. Here’s a sample of those with paid musicians as reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1883:
First Presbyterian
Soprano - $800
Tenor and Basso - $400 each
Organist - $600
Temple Shaare Emeth
$200 for each
Second Baptist
Soprano - $700
Tenor and Basso - $400 each
Organist and director - $1,200
Church of the Messiah (Unitarian)
Soprano - $800
Alto - $600
Tenor - $500
Organist - $500
1886 Railroad Wages
Engineers: $2.50-$3 a day
Conductors: $2.75-$3.50
Firemen: $1.80-$2
Baggage masters: $1.75-$2.25
Brakemen: $1.65-$1.85
Car cleaners: $1.50 a day, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. (At 52 weeks a year with no time off this would total $468
annually.)
Boston & Albany “pays the best wages of any road running out of Boston.”
Passenger Conductors: $100/month, while few get more than $80/month on other lines.
1890s
In 1893 when railroads west of Chicago and St. Louis raised dinner prices to $1 from 75 cents, dining car waiter's tips dropped dramatically, nearly halving their pay.
Cowley County, Kansas Teachers 1894
“The following is a list of the names of teachers in Cowley County who have been fortunate in securing schools for the coming winter…”
The list began with Miss Lulu Combs, $40/month for 7 months.
Terms varied from 4 to 8 months in the different districts, with a district being a single school one-roomed. Pay varied from $25 for seven months to $47.50 paid to E.H. Albert for 5 months.
City and County of Buffalo, New York 1895:
Department of the Poor Annual salaries
Overseer - $3,500
Clerks - $900 each
Janitresses - $200 each
Department of Law
Corporate counsel - $5,000
City attorney - $3,000
Clerk - $1,200
Stenographer - $900
Department of Public Instruction
Superintendent - $5,000
Secretary - $2,500
Clerk - one at $1.200 and one at $900
Attendance officers - $850
Janitors - ranged from $1,700 (1) to $1,200 (3), $1,000 (2); most made between $750 to $150
Principals - ranged from $2,500 to one at $700
Teachers - ranged from $550-$1,000
Department of Public Works
Elevator operator - $425
Scrubwomen - $1 a day (employed 8)
Bathhouse keepers - $300
Janitor - $1,000
Superintendent - $3,000
Building inspectors - $1,000
Watchman - $750
Department of Police
Supervisor - $3,000
Stenographer - $1,000
Janitor at headquarters - $2,500
Matrons - $600 each (3)
Janitresses - $300-$500
Patrolmen - $900
Hostler - $750
Texas State Government 1895:
Deaf, Dumb and Blind Asylum For Colored Youths
Superintendent - $1,500
Shoemaker - $400
Seamstress - $300
Matron - $350
Laundress - $440
Gardener and farmer - $300
Department of Education
Superintendent - $2,500
Stenographer and typewriter - $1,200
Porter - $360
Governor’s Mansion
Gardener - $500
Housekeeper - $300
State librarian at Austin - $720
State Lunatic Asylum at Austin
Superintendent - $2,000
Physician - $1,600
Matron - $600
Apothecary - $500
Chief cook - $600
Assistant cook - $200
Baker - $480
Carpenter $720
Blacksmith - $480
Laundress - $20/month
Attendants - $20/month
Nurses $30/month
Dining room girls (3) at $20/month
State of Indiana 1899
Governor - $5,000
Secretary of State - $6,500
State Auditor - $7,500
Attorney General - $7,500
Stenographer - $600 (in a.g. office)
Superintendent of Public Instruction - $2,500
Clerk - $900 (DPI)
Stenographer - $900
State librarian - $1,500
Custodian of statehouse - $1,500
Sources:
Adams, Donald, Jr. “The Standard of Living During American Industrialization: Evidence From the Brandywine Region, 1800-1860,” The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 42, No. 4 (Dec. 1982), pp. 903-917.
“American Labor in Comparative Perspective,” Digital History, Mintz, S., & McNeil, S. (2018). Digital History. Retrieved 12 Feb 2024 from http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/
Newspapers:
“Post Office Statistics,” The Republican Banner (Nashville, Tennessee), 24 March 1860, p. 2.
“Government Salaries At the United States Arsenal,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 22 Oct 1862, p. 8.
“Official Laws of the United States, Passed at the first session of the 38th Congress,” Bangor Daily Whig and Courier, 21 Nov 1864, p. 4.
“Ministers’ Salaries,” The Baltimore Sun, 7 Aug 1867, p. 2.
“Legislative Discussions,” Louisville Courier Journal, 11 Feb 1868, p. 1.
“Our Schools,” Pittston Gazette (Pittston, Pennsylvania), 4 Feb 1869, p. 3.
“City Council - Official,” New Orleans Republican, 5 May 1870, p. 2.
“Labor, A Review of the Situation. Valuable Statistics Compiled by the Relief and Aid Society,” Chicago Tribune, 17 Feb 1874, p. 5.
“Who Will Sing In the Churches During Winter? The Salaries of Sopranos, Contraltos, Tenors and Bassos – Choirs of the Leading Churches in the City,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 21 Sept. 1883, p. 5.
“On the Rail. 30,000 Contented Employees. Some of the Wages Paid and Work Done,” Boston Globe, 3 Aug 1886, p. 3.
"Hard On Waiters. The Price of a Dinner on a Dining Car Increased and Tips Decreased!" Leavenworth Standard, 6 April 1893, p. 1.
“Cowley County Teachers,” Arkansas Valley Democrat, 24 Aug 1894, p. 1.
“Corporation Proceedings, City and County Hall,” Buffalo Commercial, 5 March 1895, p. 4.
“Appropriations . Act of Support For State Government,” Galveston Daily News, 7 May 1895, p. 6.
“Bill Quickly Handled - Appropriation Bill Is Advanced To the House,” Indianapolis Journal, 25 Feb 1899, p. 8.
Copyright by Andrea Auclair © 2024
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