Hourly wages and Health Care Expenses

Question

A student here is looking for a single source (or a continuous series) that would allow her to see hourly wage data, by specific occupation (e.g., farm labourer, clerk, carpenter, etc.), from the 1930s to the present. By preference, these data would be annual - but whatever is available would be welcomed.

The census data include annual earnings, but not hourly rates, by occupation.

Answers

1. There is some wage data in: B.R. Mitchell, International Historical Statistics: The Americas, 1750-2000. The series given are for "average daily wages" for 1901 -- 1958 and average monthly wages in manufacturing from 1958 to present. Perhaps a useful starting point?

2. The best source I found for wages by occupation was through the Labour Force Survey and the Survey on Employment, Payrolls and Hours.

Unfortunately, neither survey offers data for the years you request. Due to methodological changes in the LFS, I know that they have not applied the new methods to older data - which explains why you will not find a comparative series spanning the years you seek.