automotive wage history

[rex]

I have to write a research paper. Kicking around thesis statement and topic ideas. I think I'm close to having that part sorted out. Curious if anyone here knows about how much an assembly worker made in the 50s and 60s. I ran into this:
"Top CEO salary in America: GM chairman Charlie Wilson is paid $663,000, roughly $5 million in today’s dollars, and about 40 times the annual wage of his average assembly line worker."
So I divided $633,000 by 40 and got $16,575. Ran that through the CPI calculator and discovered that in by 2012 standards $16,575 has the buying power of $157,568.41.
Is this accurate? Seems too good to be true. I do live in homecare for my grandpa, he worked for Ford back then but his memory isn't great. I asked him and he said $5 an hour which is the functional equivalent of $47.53 an hour or 91,257.60 a year. A little bit less insane perhaps but it still seems like too much. I know auto workers were paid well in the past but this well?
I guess i should say this. Im using this as a comparison against something Ford was was doing in the earlier part of the century.
I've run into some interesting Detroit historical info in here. First hand accounts. Thought perhaps someone could shed some light on this for me.

[Detroitnerd]

I think it's more that we're paid incredibly poorly today compared to the rise of the cost of living.

[Hermod]

In 1957, I was paid $1.75 per hour as an entry level "General Factory Worker" in a union shop for a supplier. The UAW contracts at the suppliers were pitched a little less than the Big 3 wage patterns, so their starting wage may have been $2 in 1957 [[plus benefits as well) .

I know that over the years 1961 to 1989, the toll and die guys always made more money than I did as an Army officer.

[Detroitnerd]

I know that over the years 1961 to 1989, the toll and die guys always made more money than I did as an Army officer.

Greedy public sector employee!

[rex]

I don't disagree. Im headed down to the Benson Ford research center in a couple weeks. Really trying to have everything figured out so as to make the most of my visit. Im in the process of deciding what deserves the most focus.

Thx hermod. Basic internet searches weren't so forthcoming.

[rex]

$1.75 in 1957 = $14.27 in 2012

Sounds a little more reasonable. Were the benefits good?

http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl

[MikeM]

In a quick skim of "Ford: Decline and Rebirth" by Nevins and Hill, I came across this reference to the 1955 Ford/UAW agreement:

Consider the case of a Ford worker in the Rouge plant earning $100 a week, wrote one - the average weekly wage in 1955 being actually $106.68. His take-home pay after taxes, if he had a wife and four other dependents, was $87.02.

John Barnard in "American Vanguard: The United Auto Workers During the Reuther Years" writes:

The auto workers, whose weekly wages in stable dollars rose from $56.51 to $249.53 between 1947 and 1975, were the best paid blue-collar workforce in the world, solidly middle class in economic standing, able to support middle-class levels and habits of consumption.

Steve Babson in "Working Detroit" writes:

Between 1945 and 1955, the city's industrial workers boosted their average wage to $98 a week, well above the $75-a-week national average for manufacturing, and 40 percent higher in real wages [[after inflation) than their pay at war's end.

and

At $11.62 an hour in 1982 wages, Detroit's autoworkers, according to U.S. car companies, were simply too expensive, particularly with the added cost of pensions, health insurance, and union-negotiated work rules.

Those works might have more wage references. I'd also look at "Auto Slavery" by David Gartman and "The Automoile Under the Blue Eagle" by Sidney Fine. Contact the UAW or look through their archives at WSU. Search Google for newspaper articles referencing strikes and pay.

[MikeM]

John Barnard in "American Vanguard":

The real wages and living standards of auto workers rose dramatically. Measured in constant dollars, the 1947 average weekly wage in the industry of $56.51 had doubled by 1960 to $115.21, and tripled by 1970 to $170.07.

In 1966, Flint, Michigan, riding on the crest of General Motors revenues, was the top hourly wage area in the United States as reported by the U.S. Department of Labor, with factory workers there, nearly all UAW members, earning a weekly average of $166.26.

In 1948, the straight-time wage, without benefits, averaged $1.50 an hour. By 1980 it was $10.77. Of the $9.27 increase, $5.44 came from COLA and $2.71 from the annual improvement factor; together they accounted for 75 percent of the total wage. The remainder of the increase, $1.12 an hour, came from general raises, the correction of inequities, and additions of higher-paying jobs to the workforce.

[rex]

thx mikeM. Last 4 years I took nothing but tech classes. Fortunately, writing a paper is like riding a bike. Comes right back.

[MikeM]

"Detroit: I Do Mind Dying" by Georgakas and Surkin:

...at Eldon, the 1969 $4-an-hour average Chrysler wage proved a fiction...most job categories at Eldon paid around $3.60 an hour and none paid more than $3.94.

Briggs was purchased by Chrysler in 1953. Nineteen years later, Briggs workers learned that their factory was to be moved to Tennessee within a year. The workers were told that they were guarnateed a job if they moved to Tennessee, too, but their wages would be $2.40 an hour instead of the Detroit rate of $4.30.

[Jman]

I left my job in 1955 at Tom's Supermarket where I made $.55 per hour. I worked 18 hours per week which grossed $9.90. I became a bus boy at Chrysler's World Headquarters cafeteria and earned $1.85 per hour for 10 hours per week or $18.50 gross. I was told that I was earning the same hourly wage as a production line worker. My benefits were a clean white jacket each day and all that I could eat.

[mikefmich]

1968 & 1969 UAW wages for non-skilled trades hovered in the $3.25 range per hour, give or take 15-20 cents depending on one's classification.

The big jumps came in the 1970 & 1973 contracts, which was after I left and swore I'd never work in another factory.

[rex]

3.25
thats 21.40 an hour/41K a year.
Respectable earnings. Was that starting pay or the ceiling?

How easy was it to get one of these jobs?

[Lowell]

1968 & 1969 UAW wages for non-skilled trades hovered in the $3.25 range per hour, give or take 15-20 cents depending on one's classification.

The big jumps came in the 1970 & 1973 contracts, which was after I left and swore I'd never work in another factory.

The reason I am in Detroit today started in those years when I learned from college classmates that Ford would hire students to fill vacationing worker gaps. I worked in the Dearborn Engine plant summers of 66,67,68 making a whopping [[for me back then anyway) 3.20 an hour which was about 3x minimum wage which is all I got paid with ZERO benefits in my small Wisconsin town). It increased a little more each year.

That was starting assembly line pay. It went up depending on things like skilled work and seniority. Time and a half for over time and double time for weekends helped me get through university debt free. Thank you UAW!

I have been solidly pro union ever since. I saw people who could work hard and join the middle class, get health care, send their kids to college, save up a pension and not get dumped because the boss decided to give your job to his nephew.

I'm sorry college kids today don't have the opportunity to work the lines with real working people and earn a decent wage while learning about working people and their struggles.

[mikefmich]

3.25
thats 21.40 an hour/41K a year.
Respectable earnings. Was that starting pay or the ceiling?

How easy was it to get one of these jobs?

I'm not following your 21.40/42k a year thing.

Back then? Wasn't awfully hard.
Chrysler was the easiest...but they would lay most folks off right before their 90 days was up.

GM was next, Ford was the hardest....but relative to the last 25 yrs, it was simple as pie

My journey started at TRW, I quit after 4 months. Worked a few small shops, which generally sucked in wages and working conditions. Went to Chrysler for a year, my boss pissed me off and I quit, to never go back in a shop.

Well....never is a funny word. Returned to Fords as a tradesperson 7 yrs later and hung around for 30 yrs.

[mikefmich]

I have been solidly pro union ever since. I saw people who could work hard and join the middle class, get health care, send their kids to college, save up a pension and not get dumped because the boss decided to give your job to his nephew.

Spot on with that Lowell. My grandma's brother lied about his age and hired in at Dodge Main at 16 in 1923. Stayed for 42 years.

Even though he rose well into supervision...retired as a shift plant manager at the old Chrysler Assembly on Jefferson, he was still pro-union. He told me many stories of how the shops were before the unions....it wasn't pretty.

[Hermod]

I forget wat year it was, but at one time the wage-benefit package for Big 3 workers averaged $20 per hour while the wage-benefit package for non-UAW industrial workers Averaged $10 per hour.

One of the Japanese auto executives [[when the first Datsuns came into the country) said " how can a man making $10 and hour buy a car made by a man making $20 per hour??"

I grew up in Detroit and the Detroit area, so the dynamics of the Big 3 were no secret to me. When i went to live in the rest of the country, I began to realized how badly the folks there felt "economically raped" by the Big 3 oligarchy and the UAW working in tandem [[a car is a necessity in most parts of the country). As a reuslt, there was little brand and nationalistic lyalty to the Big 3 products and "Buy American" didn't stir most people.

[Hermod]

Greedy public sector employee!

Yup, $222.30 per month as a 2nd Lt PLUS $85.00 a month tax free for quarters allowance and $47.88 a month tax free for subsistence allowance for averaging 65-70 hours a week at work.

Big come down from the $612 a month I made working for Jerome Cavanaugh.

[rex]

I'm not following your 21.40/42k a year thing.

3.25 in 1968 was the functional equivalent of 21.40 an hour

$21.40*8 hours a day = $171.20 per day
$171.20 per day * 5 days = $856 a week
$856 * 4 weeks a month = $3424 a month
$3424 a month * 12 months = $41,088 a year
before taxes of course
Actually 856 * 52 weeks = 44,512 a year

[mikefmich]

3.25 in 1968 was the functional equivalent of 21.40 an hour

$21.40*8 hours a day = $171.20 per day
$171.20 per day * 5 days = $856 a week
$856 * 4 weeks a month = $3424 a month
$3424 a month * 12 months = $41,088 a year
before taxes of course
Actually 856 * 52 weeks = 44,512 a year

Oh...you used an inflation chart of some sort.

Wanna save some time on your ciphering? Just multiply 21.40 x 2080.

[rex]

http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl

consumer price index inflation calculator
I wonder how accurate it really is though.
10 years ago a pack of
smokes was 2.50 and a gallon of gas was a
dollar. As a result I quit smoking and driving
for that matter.

[CassTechGrad]

In April of 1967, I was working at Van Wormer Industries, a medium size stamping plant in Warren on 8 Mile Road near Gratiot. The $2.83 per hour rate was a little less then the Big Three. The following month in May 1967, I hired in at Chryslers Warren Truck plant on Mound near 8 Mile. I can’t find any old pay stubs from them but I remember everyone telling me I was making the “Big Money” now! For just an ordinary guy with a high school education, with those wages you could buy a small ranch in Warren, a new car every three or four years, take a summer vacation up north every year, and live the middle-class American dream. That era is gone forever and every generation after the baby boomers will never experience the “good old days” like I can.

[Hermod]

I'm sorry college kids today don't have the opportunity to work the lines with real working people and earn a decent wage while learning about working people and their struggles.

A lot of those college kids never made the amount of money during their careers that the "real working people" did.

When my father was a plant manager, the corporation used to pay tuition for night school classes [[company initiative, not union benefits). One guy [[long since retired) had gone to work for my father fresh out of high school. After about 18 years on the job and lots of night school, he earned his bachelors in Bus Adm. He then went out to look for a "real job". When he found out what they were paying, he just stayed there at the plant in his union job. Good guy though, he made foreman about the time my father retired and when the company expanded, he became plant manager of a new plant.

[313WX]

Times change.

These same jobs pays $8/hr entry level [[yes, just above minimum age) in 2012, yet the price of everything certainly isn't getting cheaper.

Young people would rather take their bets in office/administrative work, where the jobs DO pay better now in comparison to manufacturing work.

You can't blame them. They want the same opportunity to bring home the same fat paychecks their parents and grandparents did starting out as well.