Contribution of Manufacturing Wages to Regional Differences in Per Capita Income
EGIONAL differences in per capita income have been the object of continuing speculation, and several attempts have been made to isolate and measure the factors with which the differences are associated.' A more precise knowledge of these factors will contribute to our understanding of the forces which determine a particular income aggregate. Moreover, the policy implications of regional differences in per capita income, particularly regarding the expanding field of federal contributions to state and local government activities, requires a thorough analysis of the sources of these differences. The Census of Manufactures, 1947 required, for the first time, each manufacturing plant to supply information on production worker manhours as well as on the number of employees, wages, salaries, products, and other familiar measures of manufacturing.2 The availability of information on both man-hours and wages of production workers permits computing their average hourly earnings by detailed industrial and geographic classifications. This provides an opportunity for a more precise analysis than heretofore possible of the regional differences in manufacturing wages and in their effect on per capita income. In the present article, an attempt is made, first, to measure the differences among states in production-worker hourly earnings which are associated with differences in the composition of the state's manufacturing activity and, secondly, to measure the differences in production-worker hourly earnings associated with the differences among states in the wages paid production workers in the same industry. These differences are then related to the per capita income of each state and geographic division.
- DOI
- 10.2307/1925993
- Volume
- 33 (1)
- Pages
- 18
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