measures. pay was higher than average civilian income and the inclusion of the former increased per capita incomes. In 1940, the number of military personnel was not great enough to make a difference in the two In 1943, however, when military personnel within continental United States reached its peak, the per capita income for the entire population was $63 below that for civilians alone, as compared with $7 in the rest of the country. In the 13 Southern States per capita income for the entire population was $12 more than that for civilians alone. Per capita income for the whole population reduces somewhat the disparity between average incomes on the West Coast and in the rest of the country. In 1943, for instance, West Coast per capita incomes (including armed forces) were 134.8 percent of the national average compared with 139.5 percent for civilian per capita incomes. Total Income and Types of Payments, 1929–45 The remarkable changes in the volume of income payments after 1929 were accompanied by changes in the proportions represented by aggregate wages and salaries, property income, proprietors' income, and other income payments. While the aggregate amounts of the various types of income increased during the war period, the relative importance of the income shares was considerably altered, in some cases the trend being reversed. These changing shares reflect, to a large degree, the changing structure of the economy. Table 3 shows the composition of income payments on the West Coast and in the rest of the country and the relation of the components to the total since 1929. Aggregate income payments.-The expansion in business activity and in the income of individuals, first in the recovery period of the thirties and then during the immediate prewar and war periods, was at a faster rate in the Pacific States than in the rest of the country. Total income payments of 7,339 million dollars on the West Coast were 6 percent greater in 1940 than in 1929; in the remainder of the country, the 1940 payments were still 10 percent below the 1929 figure. During the next 2 years aggregate income payments increased at a considerably more rapid rate on the West Coast than in the remainder of the country. However, after 1942 the rate of increase was not much • The inclusion of net pay of the armed forces tends to distort the relationship of wages and salaries to total income during the war years. The deduction from military pay for family allowances and allotments and their inclusion in other income is another difficulty in seeing true relationships. The proportions, based on the aggregates of the various types of payments, do not measure the income status of the individuals who receive such income. No account is taken of the numbers of persons in the various groups, a greater change in which may, for the average individual, offset the change in the aggregate. Furthermore, many individuals receive more than one type of income although usually only one type is significant. Data of this sort are not available and without a detailed knowledge of the distribution of income recipients an analysis of the income of individuals is not satisfactory. greater than in the other States, and in 1945 the West Coast experienced little change while the increase continued in the rest of the country. During the war period the State of Washington experienced the greatest relative expansion of total income payments in the country, an increase of 185 percent between 1940 and 1945. As a result of the more rapid growth of economic activity in the West Coast area, its share of the country's aggregate income payments rose from 8.4 percent in 1929 to 9.7 percent in 1940 and to 11.6 percent in 1945. TABLE 3.-Total income payments and their composition, West Coast and all other States, 1929–45 ↑ Source: U. S. Department of Commerce, Survey of Current Business, August 1945 and August 1946. * Includes only payments to residents of the continental United States; excludes pay of Federal civilian employees and armed forces stationed outside the country with the exception of that part flowing into this country in the form of voluntary allotments of pay and contributions to family allowance payments by military personnel to their dependents. After deduction of employees' contributions to social security, railroad retirement, railroad unemploy ment insurance, and Government retirement programs. Pay of the armed forces, net of contributions to family allowance payments and of allotments to individuals, is allocated by States in terms of the State of duty. Represents the net income of unincorporated establishments, including farms, before owners' withdrawals. Includes dividends, interest, net rents, and royalties. Includes public assistance and other direct relief; labor items such as work relief, veterans' pensions and benefits, Government retirement payments, workmen's compensatio 1, and social-insurance benefits; mustering-out payments to discharged servicemen; and family allowance payments and allotments of psy to dependents of military personnel (allocated to State of dependent's residence). Wages and salaries.-Total wages and salaries paid in the region increased from 2,483 million dollars in 1933 to 4,538 million dollars in 1940, and to 12,614 million dollars in 1944, the year of greatest war activity. The increase between the extreme dates was 408 percent, but in the remainder of the country it was only 241 percent. Wages and salaries in the West Coast States, which constituted about 62 percent of total income payments before the war, increased to 71.6 percent in 1943. The proportion was slightly below that of the rest of the country before the war; since 1942 this position has been reversed. Proprietors' income.-West Coast farmers and unincorporated businesses, taken as a group, also enhanced their position relative to the same group in the rest of the country. Between 1933 and 1945, proprietors' income on the Pacific Coast rose 358 percent compared with a 275-percent increase elsewhere. Before the war, this type of income was about as important a component of total income in the Pacific States as in the rest of the country. In 1940 and 1941, it became relatively more important on the West Coast, but declined thereafter to the prewar relationship. The ratio of proprietors' to total income remained somewhat higher in the rest of the country. The greater relative increase in farm income-a more important component outside the West Coast-may account for the latter fact. Property income.-Receivers of property income, as a group, have had the smallest share in the expansion of aggregate income in the country since the depression years. While other types of income increased threefold to fivefold throughout the country, property income was only about 80 percent higher in 1945 than in 1933. In the Pacific States, however, the increase (131 percent) was significantly larger than in the country as a whole. Declining interest rates and decreased dividends in the thirties together with rent ceilings and increased taxes during the war combined to cause a continuous decline in the relative share of this type of income. Since 1941, the decline in the proportion of this type of income on the West Coast was greater than in the rest of the country. Other income.-"Other income" increased in relation to the total during the depression years, with the growth of relief and work-relief payments and, after 1935, social-security benefits. These payments declined in relative importance in the early war years as a result of the tremendous increase in the other income components. In 1944 and 1945, the large amounts of allowances and allotments to families. of servicemen together with mustering-out pay were significant enough to raise the proportion of "other" income. This is true of both the West Coast and the rest of the country; but after 1942, the increases were somewhat less on the West Coast than in the other States. Wages and Salaries and Their Composition, 1940–45 The relatively greater increase in economic activity in all segments of the West Coast economy during the war years is indicated in the increasing proportions of the country's total wages and salaries paid to the major industry groups of wage and salary earners on the West Coast, except manufacturing, in which some decline occurred during the last war years (table 4). Table 5 and the chart show the relative importance of the major industrial components of wages and salaries on the West Coast and in all other States during the war period. Aggregate wages and salaries. Since the increase in wages and salaries was greater on the West Coast than in the rest of the country, this type of payment rose from 9.5 percent of the country's total in 1940 to 12.1 percent in 1945. The rate of growth during the war years was also greater for each of the industry components of total wages and salaries and, with a few exceptions, greater than in any other region. TABLE 4.-Percent that West Coast wages and salaries form of national total, by components, 1940-45 1 TABLE 5.-Percentage distribution of civilian wages and salaries and their components, West Coast and all other States, 1940 and 1943-451 1 Source: Based on data from Department of Commerce. Before deduction of civil-service retirement contributions of employees. |