The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy

by Adam Tooze

Only the most highly paid workers such as skilled machinists or typesetters earned more than one Reichsmark per hour. At the other end of the scale, the lowest-paid male workers in sawmills and textile factories were on hourly rates of 59 Pfennigs.19 Unskilled women workers in textiles or the food industries could expect no more than 42–5 Pfennigs. In 1936, with the German economy at full employment, 14.5 million people, 62 per cent of all German taxpayers, reported annual incomes of less than 1,500 Reichsmarks, corresponding to weekly earnings of just over 30 Reichsmarks and hourly rates of about 60 Pfennigs.20 A further 21 per cent, or 5 million white-collar and blue-collar workers, reported annual incomes of between 1,500 and 2,400 Reichsmarks (weekly earnings of between 30 and 50 Reichsmarks). Only 17 per cent of all taxpayers recorded incomes of more than 2,400 Reichsmarks, or 50 Reichsmarks per week.