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Message:: [QUOTE="doug5353, post: 2091569, member: 73555"]Farm wages are hard to calculate, as the job often included room and board.  I have pay slips (in a paper memorabilia collection) from 1932, showing wages of 10c per hour, but including a semi-private room, community meals, and "transportation" to church.  But for the unskilled and uneducated, farm labor was the only choice, and it was slavery all over again, except you were free to leave (and starve). Miners were hard-hit too, but they were constrained by debt.  Employment agreements generally required miners to buy food, equipment, and other items at the company store, and to ensure compliance, miners were paid in metal scrip, and local merchants were warned not to accept it.  Miners quickly descended into debt, and were de facto prisoners in a sense, because Big Coal didn't want experienced miners to leave - it was expensive and time-consuming to train new miners, and they were more likely to avoid restrictive, inhumane contracts. Railroad workers also had a tough time, as there was little demand for new lines.  During the Depression, hundreds of small railroads consolidated into larger lines, or were bought outright by the majors.[/QUOTE]