Search

This paper standardizes Chilean salaries between 1886 and 1928 to a Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) format that allows comparison with salaries in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil during the same period. With this, it is possible to identify the level and trajectory of Chilean salaries vis-à-vis their counterparts in the Southern Cone of Latin America. In addition, it attempts to identify the impact that salary performance could have had on the most identifiable episodes of labor conflict, such as the constitution of Chile as a relatively attractive place for the immigration of European workers. The results show unequivocally that the economic growth of Chile until 1914 was not accompanied by the emergence of a favorable environment for Chilean workers or for the settlement of immigrant workers in relation to Uruguay, Argentina and even Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]