How many people worked for the WPA?
At its height in late 1938, more than 3.3 million Americans worked for the WPA. The WPA – which in 1939 was renamed the Work Projects Administration – employed mostly unskilled men to carry out public works infrastructure projects.
What did the WPA do for the unemployed?
The WPA was designed to provide relief for the unemployed by providing jobs and income for millions of Americans. At its height in late 1938, more than 3.3 million Americans worked for the WPA. The WPA – which in 1939 was renamed the Work Projects Administration – employed mostly unskilled men to carry out public works infrastructure projects.
How much did the WPA cost in 1943?
Under the direction of Harry Hopkins, an enthusiastic ex-social worker who had come from modest means, the WPA would spend more than $11 million in employment relief before it was canceled in 1943. The work relief program was more expensive than direct relief payments, but worth the added cost, Hopkins believed.
How did the WPA affect the construction industry?
WPA construction projects sometimes ran three to four times the cost of private work. Some of this was intentional. The WPA avoided cost-saving technologies and machinery in order to hire more workers. Unions protested the WPA for its refusal to pay wages as high as those in the private sector.
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How many jobs did the WPA make?
8.5 million peopleDuring its eight-year existence, the WPA put some 8.5 million people to work (over 11 million were unemployed in 1934) at a cost to the federal government of approximately $11 billion.
What was the budget for the WPA?
In April 1935 as the United States continued struggling with the Great Depression, President Roosevelt and Congress dramatically increased funds for helping the unemployed by creating the Works Progress Administration (WPA), an agency to employ 3.5 million people nationally with a budget of almost $5 billion.
What was a WPA field worker?
The WPA, the Public Works Administration (PWA) and other federal assistance programs put unemployed Americans to work in return for temporary financial assistance. Out of the 10 million jobless men in the United States in 1935, 3 million were helped by WPA jobs alone.
Did the WPA pay well?
Roosevelt's work-relief program employed more than 8.5 million people. For an average salary of $41.57 a month, WPA employees built bridges, roads, public buildings, public parks and airports.
Does WPA still exist today?
The WPA shut down in June of 1943. At that time, unemployment was less than two percent. Many Americans had transitioned to work in the armed services and defense industries.
Who did the WPA hire?
At its peak in 1938, it supplied paid jobs for three million unemployed men and women, as well as youth in a separate division, the National Youth Administration. Between 1935 and 1943, the WPA employed 8.5 million people (about half the population of New York).
When did WPA end?
By the time it was terminated in 1943, 8.5 million unemployed Americans had been placed in jobs at a total cost to the federal government of approximately $11 billion ($216 billion in 2021 dollars).
What were the benefits of the WPA?
The WPA built or improved 651,000 miles of roads, 19,700 miles of water mains and 500 water treatment plants. Workers built 24,000 miles of sidewalks; 12,800 playgrounds; 24,000 miles of storm and sewer lines; 1200 airport buildings; 226 hospitals; more than 5,900 schools, and more than two million privies.
Why was the WPA successful?
Headed by Harry Hopkins, the WPA supplied paid jobs to the unemployed during the Great Depression in the United States, while building up the public infrastructure of the US, such as parks, schools, and roads....Works Progress Administration.Agency overviewAnnual budget$1.3 billion (1935)Key documentEmergency Relief Appropriation Act of 19356 more rows
What were the benefits of the WPA?
The WPA built or improved 651,000 miles of roads, 19,700 miles of water mains and 500 water treatment plants. Workers built 24,000 miles of sidewalks; 12,800 playgrounds; 24,000 miles of storm and sewer lines; 1200 airport buildings; 226 hospitals; more than 5,900 schools, and more than two million privies.
What did the WPA do in the New Deal?
The WPA was the largest and most diverse of the New Deal public works programs. It was created to alleviate the mass unemployment of the Great Depression and by the time it was terminated in 1943, the WPA had put 8.5 million Americans back to work [2].
How did the WPA support the arts in the 1930s?
In the 1930s, as part of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal and its Works Progress Administration effort, the federal government hired more than 10,000 artists to create works of art across the country, in a wide variety of forms — murals, theater, fine arts, music, writing, design, and more.
How many murals did the WPA fund?
The WPA supported tens of thousands of artists, by funding creation of 2,566 murals and 17,744 pieces of sculpture that decorate public buildings nationwide.
What was the WPA program?
The WPA program in the arts led to the creation of the National Foundation for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The WPA paid low wages and it was not able to employ everyone — some five million were left to seek assistance from state relief programs, which provided families with $10 per week.
How much did the WPA make a month?
For an average salary of $41.57 a month, WPA employees built bridges, roads, public buildings, public parks and airports. Under the direction of Harry Hopkins, an enthusiastic ex-social worker who had come from modest means, the WPA would spend more than $11 million in employment relief before it was canceled in 1943.
How many women were employed by the WPA in 1938?
Give him a job and you save both body and spirit”. The WPA employed far many more men than women, with only 13.5 percent of WPA employees being women in the peak year of 1938.
Why was the WPA so famous?
Of all of President Roosevelt’s New Deal programs, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) is the most famous, because it affected so many people’s lives. Roosevelt’s work-relief program employed more than 8.5 million people.
Who is Ellen Woodward?
Ellen Woodward, director of the women’s programs at the WPA, successfully pushed for women’s inclusion in the Professional Projects Division. In this division, professional women were treated more equally to men, especially in the federal art, music, theater, and writers’ projects.
What Was the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Why Was It Introduced?
The WPA was a groundbreaking job program designed to provide unemployed Americans with work and income during a time when many were "on the dole" and struggling to make ends meet.
What Were Some of the Drawbacks of the WPA?
The WPA is fondly remembered for helping to claw the American economy out of its worst financial crisis, leaving us with some special landmarks and breathing life into the arts. However, it wasn’t without faults. The program was expensive to run, not always cost-efficient, and didn’t always pay its participants fairly.
What was the purpose of the Works Progress Administration?
Roosevelt in 1935 to boost employment and the purchasing power of cash-strapped Americans. Implemented at the height of the Great Depression, the WPA sought to eradicate high unemployment by placing millions of skilled and unskilled workers in a broad range of jobs covering everything from the construction of infrastructure and public structures to the arts and manufacturing.
What are the most common WPA jobs?
The largest number of WPA employment opportunities, 75% according to the "Final Report on the WPA Program ," came in the form of engineering and construction jobs. Participants in these programs were responsible for building new schools, hospitals, roads, storm drains, sanitary sewer lines, bridges, airfields, and roads, among other things. 10
How did the WPA help?
Some people also credit the WPA with helping to erase, or at least ease, inequality. Though not entirely free of discrimination, the program's general efforts to boost the number of African Americans and women in the workforce marked a vast improvement for that particular period in American history. During its short lifespan, African Americans and women reportedly made up roughly 30% of the total WPA workforce. 15 12
Why was the WPA created?
The WPA wasn’t loved by all. A common complaint among Roosevelt’s Republican rivals was that it was created to buy votes ahead of the 1936 reelection cycle and was simply an extension of the welfare check. In response to the latter accusation, Harry Hopkins, the first administrator of the WPA, hit back, saying: “Give a man a dole and you save his body and destroy his spirit. Give him a job and you save both body and spirit.” 16 14
Why is the WPA important?
While it wasn’t without controversy, the WPA is largely celebrated for helping America to survive the Great Depression and claw its way back to economic prosperity. The program also left its mark in other ways, gifting us various smartly designed public buildings and structures and a thriving arts scene.
What Was the WPA?
President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the WPA with an executive order on May 6, 1935. It was part of his New Deal plan to lift the country out of the Great Depression by reforming the financial system and restoring the economy to pre-Depression levels.
What is WPA architecture?
African Americans And Women in the WPA. Criticism of the WPA. Sources: The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was an ambitious employment and infrastructure program created by President Roosevelt in 1935, during the bleakest years of the Great Depression.
How many African Americans were employed by the WPA in 1935?
In 1935, the WPA employed approximately 350,000 African Americans, about 15 percent of its total workforce. The Federal Music and Theatre projects also supported black musicians and actors. The WPA made significant contributions to the preservation of African American culture and history with the Federal Writers’ Project.
How much of the WPA budget went to the arts?
Federal One comprised a small part of WPA expenditures. Roughly $27 million of the nearly $5 billion that had been earmarked for WPA work programs went to the arts. The WPA arts programs led to the later creation of the National Foundation of the Arts.
What is Federal Project Number One?
Federal Project Number One. In addition to its well-known building and infrastructure projects, the WPA also oversaw a group of programs collective ly known as Federal Project Number One. These programs employed artists, musicians, actors and writers.
Why was the WPA criticized?
The answer to both questions was “the WPA.”. Some politicians criticized the WPA for its inefficiencies. WPA construction projects sometimes ran three to four times the cost of private work. Some of this was intentional. The WPA avoided cost-saving technologies and machinery in order to hire more workers.
Why is the WPA important?
Despite these attacks, the WPA is celebrated today for the employment it offered to millions during the darkest days of the Great Depression, and for its lasting legacy of smartly designed, well-built schools, dams, roads, bridges and other buildings and structures – many of which are still in use today.
How much did the WPA provide in 1935?
The WPA's initial appropriation in 1935 was for $4.9 billion (about 6.7 percent of the 1935 GDP). Headed by Harry Hopkins, the WPA provided paid jobs to the unemployed during the Great Depression in the United States, while building up the public infrastructure of the US, such as parks, schools and roads.
Why was the League of the Physically Handicapped organized?
The League of the Physically Handicapped in New York was organized in May 1935 to end discrimination by the WPA against the physically handicapped unemployed. The city's Home Relief Bureau coded applications by the physically handicapped applicants as "PH" ("physically handicapped"). Thus they were not hired by the WPA. In protest the League held two sit-ins in 1935. The WPA relented and created 1,500 jobs for physically handicapped workers in New York City.
How many African Americans were on WPA?
The share of Federal Emergency Relief Administration and WPA benefits for African Americans exceeded their proportion of the general population. The FERA's first relief census reported that more than two million African Americans were on relief during early 1933, a proportion of the African-American population (17.8%) that was nearly double the proportion of whites on relief (9.5%). This was during the period of Jim Crow and racial segregation in the South, when blacks were largely disenfranchised .
How many people did the WPA employ?
Between 1935 and 1943, the WPA employed 8.5 million people. Hourly wages were typically set to the prevailing wages in each area.
What is the WPA?
The WPA was a federal program that operated its own projects in cooperation with state and local governments, which provided 10–30% of the costs . Usually the local sponsor provided land and often trucks and supplies, with the WPA responsible for wages (and for the salaries of supervisors, who were not on relief).
What was the goal of the WPA?
The goal of the WPA was to employ most of the unemployed people on relief until the economy recovered . Harry Hopkins testified to Congress in January 1935 why he set the number at 3.5 million, using Federal Emergency Relief Administration data. Estimating costs at $1,200 per worker per year ($22,651 in present-day terms ), he asked for and received $4 billion ($75.5 billion in present-day terms ). Many women were employed, but they were few compared to men.
When did FDR start the work relief program?
FDR prepares to speak about the establishment of the work relief program and Social Security at his fireside chat of April 28, 1935 . FERA administrator and WPA head Harry Hopkins speaking to reporters (November 1935) On May 6, 1935, FDR issued executive order 7034, establishing the Works Progress Administration.
What is WPA in construction?
Shows hourly wages paid to workers employed through the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA), a program to put the unemployed back to work. Shows wage detail for each construction occupation (carpenter, painter, electrician, etc.) by state and then by town. See sections for California, Texas and New York state for example.
What is the buying power of a dollar in 2016?
For example, a dollar earned in 2016 had the same buying power as 4 cents in 1913. Conversely, a dollar earned in 1913 had the same buying power as $24.24 in the year 2016.
When was the Urban Negro Worker published?
Source: The Urban Negro Worker in the United States, 1925-1936, published by the federal government as a WPA project. Compares median wages and salary income for white race and non-white races, with breakouts by sex. Provides data for the years 1939, 1947, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960.
When was the minimum wage first enacted?
Chart from the U.S. Dept of Labor shows the first federal minimum wage law enacted in 1938 (25 cents), and all subsequent increases through 2009. Common laborers - Wages, 1931-1935. Starting wages for common laborers, 1931-1934. Also breaks out the wage data by industry and geographic region.
How much did Pep Flakes cost in 1930?
Pep Flakes cost 12¢ in 1930. See more prices for name brands
When were cooks on passenger ships based in Boston?
Cooks on passenger ships based in Boston, 1929-1930. This chart of union wages shows the significant differences in pay for chief cooks, second cooks and night cooks for first class ship passengers, compared to pay earned by cooks for second class passengers on the same vessel. Dentists' income, 1929-1948.
When was Password to Paris published?
See book Password to Paris: Advice for the Thrifty, published in the U.S. in 1932. Not a government document.
