LABOR: Plenty to Spend

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Political spokesmen for organized labor, echoing Democratic campaigners of last fall, still refer to 1954 as a recession year. But union economists last week reported to the American Federation of Labor executive council in Miami Beach, Fla. that wage increases in 1954 "provided more of a gain in real wages [e.g., purchasing power] than increases in other postwar years, for they were almost entirely over and beyond the amount needed to compensate for rises in the cost of living." The report showed that two-thirds of 1954 union-management contracts brought wage increases of 5¢ to 9¢ and about 22% brought increases of 10¢ or more. Average hourly earnings (68¢ in 1941) are now up to $1.83.

Last week the Commerce Department revealed that Americans had more spendable money last year than ever before. Total personal income after taxes was $254 billion—$3.5 billion more than 1953.