The Wages of the Working Classes.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 85, 18 April 1885, Page 5

The Wages of the Working Classes.

Sut Arthur Bass having commissioned Professor Lcono Levi to mako an inquiry into the wages and oarningsof tho working classos in the UnitcdKingdom, tho Professor has mado a report on the subject, in which ho says that in 1867 he found the number of workers to be 11,018,000. In 1881 they wore 12,200,000. Of theso thero were in 1881, 400,000 engaged in professional, and ■-,4000 OOOindonies.icoccupattons, rccoiving as is usual, board and lodging as well as wages, whoso earnings woro worth £40 a year, as compared with 300,000 professional in 1567, receiving £33, and 1,700,000 domestic receiving £35. In ISS4 there wore 900,000, engaged in commercial pursuits at an average income of £60, as compared with 700,000 in 1867 at an average income of a trifle above £55. In agricul tural pursuits there were in 18S4 1,900,000, at an average income of £34 3., as compared with 2,700.000 in 1867 at an inCome of £31 4s. The industrial wage-earners numbered 0,600,000 in 1884, oarnin-' each an average wage of £46 2s, while in 1567 tliey numbereds,6oo,ooo, earning each £40. The total earnings of the working classes in 1884 were £«21,000,000, and in 1567 £418,000,000. Thus, with an increase of less than 11 per cent, in the number of earners, there has been an increase of 2404 per cent, in the amount of their earnings, being 1237 per cent, per earner. Professor Leone Levi, looking at the incomes of the working classes as averaging 32s a week per family, concludes that they are in a better economic condition than the labourin"' classes of any other country.