ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by the labor supply,

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or where babies come from.

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All right, take a look at this excerpt.

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The Populist Party... [ mumbles ]

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[ mumbling continues ]

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All right, and the question:

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During this time, wages around the country... did what?

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And here are your potential answers. [ glugging ]

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All right.

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So, first off, we need to figure out exactly what was happening

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in the country in the late 19th century.

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That's like 1880s and 90s.

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Well, all that industrialization meant that there were

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lots of jobs available, sure,

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but companies were simultaneously growing in power

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and they might have had a thought or two about how much

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to pay their employees.

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Let's keep that in mind as we check out the answers

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and think forward about the Grapes of Wrath.

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Well, during this time, did wages around the country A -

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rise as the rate of immigration slowed?

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Well, actually, with all those new factory jobs, immigrants were

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tripping over each other to travel to the U.S. for work.

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Could wages at the time have C - stayed the same as

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women demanded equal pay?

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Well, women were starting to enter the workforce at a higher number than ever before,

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but that whole equal pay conversation still hasn't been resolved.

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So that knocks out C, too.

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Could wages at the time have D -

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risen after legislation prohibiting child labor was passed?

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Hmm... Those companies probably paid child workers less than

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their adult counterparts, so if all of a sudden adults began

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taking over jobs once done by kids, it's not likely

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they would've been handed a raise.

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That must mean wages at the time B - fell

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as more immigrants and internal migrants

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entered the workforce. Internal migrant, like someone from

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Nebraska moving to a factory in California.

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The labor supply increased at the same time that companies

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got more powerful, so management gained the ability to

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fire employees who spoke out against brutal working conditions

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since there were literally thousands more ready and willing to take their place.

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All work and no ability to negotiate a fair wage

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makes Jack a very replaceable boy.

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[ buzz ] [ door opens ]

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