What was the average weekly pay for a female factory worker in 1944?

In 1944, a female worker in a factory earned approximately $32.21 per week. In contrast, a male factory worker made around $54.65 weekly. In modern times, that equals about $430 per week for women and $730 weekly for men.

Due to World War II, the number of women working outside the home grew by 50 percent. With a number of men leaving to go fight in the war overseas, thousands of vacated jobs in factories were filled by women. In addition, the increasing demand of war supplies, including ammunition, vehicles and weapons, meant that even more jobs were created that needed to be filled by women. The number of women in defense industries grew by 462 percent during World War II.