Pullman Company Pays Black Porters Poverty Wages, Depends on Tip Economy

The 12,000 Black Pullman porters — the largest single employer of Black labor in the United States through the 1920s — were paid wages deliberately set below subsistence level, forcing dependence on white passengers' tips for income. Porters were required to purchase their own uniforms, shoe polish, and supplies. The company policy of calling all porters 'George' (after founder George Pullman) denied individual identity. Porters worked 400 hours per month or traveled 11,000 miles between pay periods — far more than any other railroad workers — with no overtime. A. Philip Randolph's organizing campaign exposed these conditions nationally.