A New World of Labor:
From Siren to Siren
Even
when workers of different nationalities were employed to do the same tasks,
they were paid at different wage rates.
Filipino cane cutters for example, were paid only $.69 in average
wages per day in 1910, as compared to $.99 for Japanese cane cutters. ̉AmericanÓ or white carpenters earned
$4.36 in average wages per day, while Japanese carpenters made only $1.28. The wage differential between ̉American
overseers and Japanese overseers were enormous--$3.01 to $1.25. The wage differentials between workers
of different nationalities assigned to similar occupations reinforced divisions
within the work force and also maintained the racial and social hierarchy of
the plantation.
