Employment and Wages Under Old-Age and Survivors Insurance, 1940

THE LEVEL OF employment and taxable wages under the old-age and survivors insurance program in 1940 was the highest in the first 4 years of operation of the program. The number of workers was about 7 percent greater than the number in 1937 and in 1939 and 13 percent greater than the number in 1938. Similarly, the 1940 volume of taxable wages exceeded the 1937 and 1939 totals by about 12 percent and the 1938 total by 25 percent. Approximately 35 million workers received wages of $33 billion during 1940 in employment covered by the program. The statistics presented here are derived from the 1940 tabulation of individual employee wage records, which is the fourth annual tabulation of this type.1 To make possible an analysis of the effects of the eligibility requirements, this tabulation was constructed so as to present data on annual earnings of workers distributed by the number of quarters in which they received taxable wages. The basis for the annual tabulations has varied from year to year. The 1937 and 1938 tabulations were based on approximately 100 percent of the wage records. In 1939, because of a revision in the method for posting wages to employees' accounts, the basis for the tabulation was changed to a 20-pereent sample. In 1940, the sample was reduced to 4 percent. The resultant savings made it possible to develop a 4-percent sample for the preceding years, which will produce a tabulation of the continuous wage and employment experience of covered workers for the period 1937-40. This tabulation will provide information not hitherto available on continuity of earnings, patterns of employment, quarters of coverage, and related matters, which is essential in studying the effects of the present and proposed eligibility