Partial contents: History of the wage rate series --- The present method of collection --- Weighting and averaging wage rate data --- Reliability of reported wage rates --- Cash wage rates versus real wages --- Farm wage rates, without board, adjusted for changes in rural living costs (fig.1) --- Exhibit A: Excerpt from the March 1935 issue of Crop and Markets showing piece-work wage rates and related data --- Exhibit E: U.S. farm employment release, Nov. 15, 1939 --- Exhibit F: Facsimile of October 1939 General Schedule (Illustrating type of question used to collect farm labor data) --- Exhibit G: Facsimile of November 1, 1939 Cotton Schedule (Illustrating type of question used to collect data on cotton-picking rates).
Details
Title
Reliability and Adequacy of Farm Wage Rate Data
Record Identifier
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/341157
Language
English
Total Pages
86
Note
The compilation and study of statistics on farm wage rates were inaugurated by the United States Department of Agriculture more than 70 years ago. The first inquiry, requesting monthly and daily wage rates paid by farmers, was sent in 1866 to the corps of voluntary correspondents reporting regularly to the Department on the condition of growing crops. The summarization of the figures collected at that time represents the earliest attempt made, by any organization to determine scientifically a national average of per unit labor costs. These series of wage rates have been continued in substantially the same form to date.
