week. In 6 areas, the average was $1.25 or more, in 10 others over $1; at the other end of the scale, the average was 80 cents or less in 3 cities.

Earnings of Elevator Operators

Almost 27,000 women elevator operators were reported in the decennial census, 1950. Women were almost one-third of the workers in this occupation. The average hourly earnings of operators of passenger elevators in office buildings and in hotels in representative cities as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 1955 are shown in table 8.

About one-half of the women elevator operators, whether in office buildings or hotels, earned $1.20 an hour or more. However, in office buildings almost one-fifth earned $1.40 or more, while in hotels no women were paid so much. The difference in the pay scale between office buildings and hotels is even more marked for men than womenover 80 percent of the men operators in office buildings received $1.40 or more an hour, which was higher than the pay for any of these employees in hotels.

At the other end of the scale, nearly one-fifth of the women elevator operators in office buildings and one-third of those in hotels received less than 90 cents an hour. A few men operators in hotels, but scarcely any in office buildings, were paid so low a rate.

In 3 of 20 cities in which the earnings of both women and men elevator operators in office buildings were reported, women's average hourly earnings were the same as men's; elsewhere, with one exception, men received more than women. In 11 cities, men's averages were from 10 to almost 50 cents above women's, which would be from $4 to $20 more for a 40-hour workweek.

In only 2 of 12 cities in which the earnings of both women and men elevator operators in hotels were reported did women's average earnings differ from men's by as much as 5 cents an hour; in 6 cities women had average earnings slightly above men's.

Table 8.-HOURLY EARNINGS OF OPERATORS OF PASSENGER ELEVATORS, 1955

1 Women, but no men, were reported in 5 additional cities, with the lowest average 31 cents. Men, but no women, were reported in 2 cities, none higher or lower than shown here.

Source: U. S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational wage rates.

Total Money Income

Information on total money income of individuals and of families for the year 1954 is available from current sampling reports of the Bureau of the Census. Total money income includes wage and salary income; it also includes income from other sources such as pensions, insurance policies, investments, rentals, old-age and survivor insurance benefits, and aid to dependent children or other forms of public assistance. Ninety percent of the men (14 years of age and over) in the population, but only 46 percent of the women, have income of their own from some source. Only persons who received some income during the year are included in the computations.

Median Income of Women and Men, 1954

The median income of women having any income in 1954 was $1,161; that of men was $3,199. This is an increase over a 5-year period of 22 percent in women's income and 24 percent in men's. Fifteen percent of the women had an income of $3,000 or more; nearly half received less than $1,000. Of the men, on the other hand, more than half had an income of $3,000 or more, and fewer than one-fifth received less than $1,000. (See table 9.)

Source: U. S. Bureau of the Census. Current Population Reports, P-60, No. 19.

Age of Women Receiving Income

Part of the difference between the median income of men and of women is due to the fact that in the age group 65 and over there are many more women than men in the population. Persons 65 and over are less likely to have earnings and more likely to depend on other sources of income such as old-age benefits or pensions; therefore, their average income is lower than that of the younger adult groups.

A larger proportion of women in the age group 65 and over than in any other age group have some income. Many are retired workers or widows receiving pensions, old-age benefits, or income from inheritances. Others have income from rentals or investments of their

own.

The proportion of persons having any income is lowest for both men and women in the age group under 20. At this age, of course, many girls and boys are students dependent on their parents and without any income of their own.

Among women in all age groups over 20 years, the age group 25 to 34 years has the smallest proportion receiving income. This corresponds to the drop in women's participation in the labor force during the years of life when family and homemaking responsibilities are greatest.

In amount, the median income of women rises abruptly at age 20 to 24 years, shows little change from 25 to 54 years, and drops sharply at age 55 to 64 years. (See table 10.)

Table 10.-INCOME OF WOMEN AND MEN, By Age Group, 1954

Source: U. S. Bureau of the Census. Current Population Reports, P-60, No. 19.

Family Income

In two-thirds of all families, the only income consists of the earnings of members. For the great majority of these, income is in the form of wages or salaries; for a small proportion, it is earnings from self-employment, according to the most recent census report on the subject, which gives data for the year 1954. More than half of all families have only one wage earner; one-third have two wage earners; 8 percent have three or more wage earners, and about the same number have none.

When families are grouped according to the age of the head of the family, it appears that median income rises as the age of the family head advances, until a peak of $4,811 is reached among families headed by a person between 45 and 54 years of age. Among families with a family head between 55 and 64, the median income is $4,052, and among those with a head aged 65 or over, median income is only $2,294.

The median income of all families in 1954 was $4,173. One-fifth had incomes of less than $2,000 and a somewhat smaller percentage had incomes of $7,000 or more. (See table 11.)

Table 11.-INCOME IN FAMILIES OF DIFFERENT TYPES, 1954

Source: U. S. Bureau of the Census. Current Population Reports, P-60, No. 20.

Husband-wife families. For the 36 million husband-wife families, the median income was $4,333. In 9 million of these families, the wife was in the labor force and for these families, the median income was significantly higher than for other types of families-$5,336. The median income of the 27 million husband-wife families where the wife was not in the labor force was $4,051. Twenty-seven percent of the families with working wives had incomes of $7,000 or more, compared to 15 percent of those with nonworking wives. An undetermined, though small, percentage of families had some income from the earnings of other members, but the extent to which this affected families with working wives is not known. In a very small percentage of families, the husband was not in the labor force.

Families headed by a woman.-One-tenth of all families have women heads. The median income in these families is less than 60 percent of that in husband-wife families where the wife is not in the labor force. Furthermore, only 9 percent of the families with women heads have incomes of $7,000 or more, compared to 15 percent of the husband-wife families where the wife is not employed. More complete data reported in the decennial census (1950) indicate that the family headed by a woman depends to a larger extent than the husband-wife family on other than head-of-the-family income.

In husband-wife families, the median income of the male head is over four-fifths of the entire family median income, but in families headed by a woman, the woman head's income is only about half that of the whole family. Almost a third of the families with a woman head have two or more earners.

Women Benefiting From Old-Age and Survivors

Insurance

The old-age and survivors insurance system is an important source of income for many women 65 years of age and over. This includes not only women who have built up insurance credits through their own employment or self-employment, but also women who are aged wives, widows, and mothers of insured workers, and young widows as well, if they have children of insured workers. This system is a family insurance plan under the Social Security Act, operated by the Federal Government, and financed through a tax on employers, workers and self-employed persons. It enables gainfully employed people to provide an income for themselves and their families when their usual income from employment is cut off by old age or death. Through contributions based on the amount of their wages or self-employment income covered under the system, they establish rights to future benefits. Of 7.6 million women 65 years or over in the 1955 population, 3 million received monthly payments under the old-age and survivors insurance system as retired workers, wives of retired workers, or aged widows or mothers of deceased workers, according to the Bureau of Old-Age and Survivors Insurance of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Women accounted for somewhat less than half of the 6.3 million old-age and survivors insurance beneficiaries 65 years of age or over.1

Some indication as to what old-age insurance beneficiaries receive is shown by figures for the nearly 4.5 million retired workers who were on the OASI rolls at the end of 1955. The retired women workers 1 See footnote 1, p. 48.