Workers' Savings and Income 
 
 in 1945 f— -^^|^i|7 
 
 Introduction 
 
 U.S. DEPOSITORY 
 
 During the war much was said ami wriLlwi about Lhe 
 amount of money being saved by the American people. 
 Different sets of figures were produced to show that a lot 
 of money was being saved. None of the figures showed, 
 however, how much money was being saved by workers' 
 families and how much was being saved by families in 
 other groups. 
 
 So about the middle of 1946, the Federal Reserve Board 
 published the results of a survey which had been made 
 during the first 3 months of that year. The survey was 
 made by interviewing a number of families ' all over the 
 country, and asking them a series of questions about their 
 incomes in 1945 and about the money they had saved. The 
 interviewers found out from each family how much money 
 that family had put into Government bonds, and how much 
 money it had in the bank when the year 1945 ended. 
 
 This is what the interviewers found: 
 
 SAYINGS 
 
 About 24 percent of the American families had no sav- 
 ings at all in 1945. Another 29 percent of the families 
 had less than $500 per family. In other words, over half 
 of the families had so little money in the bank or in bonds 
 that their savings were insignificant from the jDoint of view 
 of the national economy. 
 
 Sixty percent of the savings belonged to 10 percent of 
 
 ^ While we are discussing families and theii* savings, the information in the 
 Federal Reserve Board Survey is given in terms of "spending units." A spend- 
 ing unit is a little different from a family. According to the Federal Reserve 
 Board definition, a spending unit is "all persons living in the same dwelling and 
 belonging to the same family who pool their incomes to meet their major 
 expenses." 
 
the families. The top half of the people had 97 percent of 
 the savings ; the bottom half had 3 percent of the savings. 
 This is how savings were distributed by families : 
 
 Who Had The Savings 
 
 The top 10% of the families had 60% of the savings 
 The top ,20% of the families had 77% of the savings 
 The top 30% of the families had 87% of the savings 
 The top 40% of the families had 93% of the savings 
 The top 50% of the families had 97% of the savings 
 The top 60% of the families had 99% of the savings 
 The top 70% of the families had 100% of the savings 
 
 The top 80% of the families had of the savings 
 
 The top 90% of the families had of the savings 
 
 The top 100% of the families had of the savings 
 
 The average amount of money saved was $1,750 per 
 family. That is, if the money and bonds were equally 
 divided among all those that had savings, each family would 
 have had $1,750. However, the 50 percent of the families 
 that had the least amount of savings or none (the group 
 that together owned 3 percent of the money) averaged sav- 
 ings of only $150 per family. The richer half of the fami- 
 lies averaged $3,350 per family. 
 
 The average holding by each group in the population was 
 as follows : 
 
 The top 10% of the families held 60% of all assets. 
 They averaged holdings of $10,500 per unit. 
 The next 20% of the families held 27% of all assets. 
 
 They averaged holdings of $2,350 per unit. 
 The next 30% of the families held 12% of all assets. 
 They averaged holdings of $700 per unit. 
 The bottom 400? of the families held 1 Cf of all assets. They 
 averaged holdings of $40 per unit. 
 
 INCOME 
 
 , The figures on savings are, of course, part of the same 
 economic picture as the figures on income. For that rea- 
 son, the Federal Reserve Board got the figures on income in 
 1945, as well. This is what the figures on income showed : 
 
The family in the middle on the income scale had about 
 $2,050 in 1945, that is, half of the families reported in- 
 comes of more than that amount; the other half reported 
 less than $2,050. 
 
 Ten percent of the families got 29 percent of the money 
 earned in 1945. The lowest paid families in this group 
 earned $4,450. In other words, 90 percent of the families 
 in the country earned less than $4,450 in 1945. 
 
 Forty percent of the families earned less than $1,700 in 
 1945. 
 
 This is the w^ay income w^as distributed in 1945 : 
 
 Distribution of Income in 1945 
 
 The top 
 
 The top 
 The top 
 The top 
 The top 
 The top 
 The top 
 The top 
 The top 
 The top 
 
 10% 
 20% 
 30% 
 40% 
 50% 
 60% 
 70% 
 80% 
 90% 
 100% 
 
 of the 
 of the 
 of the 
 of the 
 of the 
 of the 
 of the 
 of the 
 of the 
 of the 
 
 families had 
 families had 
 families had 
 families had 
 families had 
 families had 
 families had 
 families had 
 families had 
 families had 
 
 29% 
 45% 
 58% 
 69% 
 78% 
 85% 
 91 % 
 96^; 
 99% 
 100% 
 
 of the 
 of the 
 of the 
 of the 
 of the 
 of the 
 of the 
 of the 
 of the 
 of the 
 
 ncome 
 ncome 
 ncome 
 ncome 
 ncome 
 ncome 
 ncome 
 ncome 
 ncome 
 ncome 
 
 The following table shows the percent of families in each 
 income class and the percent of the savings which they held 
 in 1945: 
 
 Income class ' 
 
 $7,500 and over 
 
 $5,000-57,499 
 
 $4,000-$4,999 . 
 
 $3,000-S3,999 
 
 $2,000-^2,999 
 
 $1,000-$1,999 
 
 Under $1,000 
 
 All classes 
 
 ^ Based on 1945 money income before taxes. 
 
 3 
 
 Percent of the 
 families 
 
 3 
 3 
 
 7 
 15 
 23 
 
 27 
 
 20 
 
 100 
 
 Percent of the 
 
 savings held 
 
 in 1945 
 
 23 
 13 
 10 
 16 
 
 17 
 14 
 
 7 
 100 
 
tINIVERblTY OF FLORIDA 
 
 3 1262 08860 0100 
 
 INTENDED USE OF SAvii^i,^ 
 
 The people interviewed were also asked what they in- 
 tended doing with the money they had saved. Here is a 
 summary of the answers given : 
 
 Major Purposes For Which Money Was Saved 
 
 Percent 
 
 Future protection in general, "a rainy day" 29 
 
 Sickness, accident, old age, and retirement : 45 
 
 Unemployment and depression 7 
 
 Children's future 17 
 
 Purchase of a house or other real estate 17 
 
 Other investment 7 
 
 Buying durable goods, travel, or other consumption i 9 
 
 Payment of debt.... \ 3 
 
 FOR FURTHER READING 
 
 National Survey of Liquid Asset Holdings.— Part^ 
 1-3. U. S. Department of Agriculture. 
 
 Fiscal Policy for Full Employment, by J. H. G. Pier- 
 son. National Planning Association, 800 21st Street 
 NW., Washington 6, D. C, 1945. Price, 25 cents. 
 
 Postwar Economic Studies. — No. 1-Jobs, Production, 
 and Living Standards. No. 3-Public Finance and 
 Full Employment. No. 4-Prices, Wages, and Em- 
 ployment. Federal Reserve Board. Price, 25 cents. 
 
 The Economic Report of the President — January 8, 
 1947. U. S. Government Printing OfRce. 
 
 The information in this leaflet was taken from the reports of a 
 survey made for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors by the 
 Division of Program Surveys, Bureau of Agricultural Economics, 
 U. S. Department of Agriculture. Free copies are available from — 
 
 U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR 
 
 DIVISION OF LABOR STANDARDS 
 WASHINGTON 25, D. C. 
 
 FEBRUARY 1947 
 
 IG 52250-1 U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE