Pullman Company Pays Black Porters Poverty Wages Below Subsistence Level

The 12,000 Black Pullman porters — the largest single employer of Black labor in the United States — were paid wages deliberately set below subsistence level, forcing dependence on white passengers' tips for income. Porters were required to purchase their own uniforms and supplies. The company policy of calling all porters 'George' 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.