Factors Associated with the Variation in Hourly Wage Rates Among a Sample of Low Wage Workers in Rural Delaware

Abstract

Many persons in rural areas in the U.S. are dependent largely on labor earnings for their economic well-being. Seventy-five percent of the 14.8 million rural nonfarm persons and fifty-two percent of the rural farm persons 16 years old and over who were employed in 1969 were employed as wage and salary workers. Of the 1.6 million rural nonfarm families with incomes less than the poverty level in 1969, 51 percent had male heads less than 65 years of age, and 71 percent of these male heads were in the labor force in 1969. Sixty-seven percent of the 442,000 rural farm families with incomes less than the poverty level had a male head less than 65 years old and 81 percent of these male heads were in the labor force in 1969.