scholarly journals The Wages of Unskilled Labor in the United States 1850-1900

1905 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edith Abbott
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Unskilled Labor

Unwanted

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maddalena Marinari
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Strategic Alliances ◽  
The United States ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
European Ancestry ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Unskilled Labor ◽  
Immigration Laws ◽  
Citizen Activism

In the late nineteenth century, Italians and Eastern European Jews joined millions of migrants around the globe who left their countries to take advantage of the demand for unskilled labor in rapidly industrializing nations, including the United States. Many Americans of northern and western European ancestry regarded these newcomers as biologically and culturally inferior--unassimilable--and by 1924, the United States had instituted national origins quotas to curtail immigration from southern and eastern Europe. Weaving together political, social, and transnational history, Maddalena Marinari examines how, from 1882 to 1965, Italian and Jewish reformers profoundly influenced the country’s immigration policy as they mobilized against the immigration laws that marked them as undesirable. Strategic alliances among restrictionist legislators in Congress, a climate of anti-immigrant hysteria, and a fickle executive branch often left these immigrants with few options except to negotiate and accept political compromises. As they tested the limits of citizenship and citizen activism, however, the actors at the heart of Marinari’s story shaped the terms of debate around immigration in the United States in ways we still reckon with today.

Occupational Differences in Labor Market Integration: The United States in 1890

1991 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 427-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua L. Rosenbloom
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Labor Markets ◽  
Market Integration ◽  
The United States ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Unskilled Labor ◽  
Building Trades ◽  
Supply Shocks ◽  
Nineteenth Century United States ◽  
Urban Labor Markets

When labor markets are subject to large demand or supply shocks, as was the case in the late nineteenth-century United States, geographic wage differentials may not be an accurate index of market integration. This article uses a conceptually more appealing measure—the elasticity of local labor supply—to compare the integration of urban labor markets for a variety of occupations in 1890. According to this measure, markets, for unskilled labor and skilled metal-working trades appear relatively well integrated in comparison to those for the skilled building trades.

Changes in Socioeconomic Status of the Chinese Male Population in the United States from 1960 to 1970

1980 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 511-524 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morrison G. Wong
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
White Male ◽  
The United States ◽  
Unskilled Labor ◽  
Male Population ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Chinese Male

This study examines significant improvements in the changing socioeconomic status of Chinese males in America during the 1960s. The variables of education, occupation and income are reviewed in their relationship to the changes from unskilled labor to professional-technical employment. The need for further research on the income lag between the Chinese and white male population is demonstrated.

“I Don’t Do It for the Money”

2021 ◽  
pp. 150-156
Author(s):  
Richard Schweid
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Home Health Care ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
The United States ◽  
Home Health ◽  
Unskilled Labor ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Care For The Elderly ◽  
To Receive

This chapter highlights the need for public policy to change how we value the work of home health aides (HHAs). Communities continue to relegate the work that HHAs do to the category of menial labor, when in fact it is something much more important and difficult to do well, more a profession than unskilled labor. In 2019, the number of HHAs for elderly Americans fell far short of those needed in many locales. Mean-spirited, xenophobic immigration policies may soon further reduce the numbers of people who are available to care for the elderly. Without enough people to do this work, the United States will move deeper into a second-rate nationhood. If there are not enough aides to go around, private-pay care will grow more expensive, and public long-term care at home will be reduced or eliminated for many, while wait times to receive what care is left will increase. Ultimately, people's lives will be of less quality than they might have been, and they may die sooner than necessary. The chapter then outlines a number of specific plans which have been elaborated to show how a better system of home health care might be funded in the United States.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document