CURRENT WAGES

Evening Star, Issue 21720, 15 May 1934, Page 7 (Supplement)

CURRENT WAGES

A COMPARISON WITH PRE-WAR RATES In rcccut years the British Ministry of Labour has compared current wage rates with tlio.se of The last comparison is with the wags rates in force, last December, except in the ease of the coal mining industry, when flic i figures of actual earnings relate to the I September quarter. The Ministry ! points out that both the amounts and J the corresponding percentages of in- ! crease over pre-war rates show a wide I diversity among different classes of I workpeople. 1 in some cases the increases in full--1 time weekly rates at the end of Inst I December were equivalent to less than | 20 per cent, on, the pre-war rates; in I other eases they were equivalent to over 100 per cent, on the pre-war rates. 1n- ( formation is insufficient to enable the ! average percentage increase for all industries' and occupations to be calculated exactly, but it is estimated that 1 at the end of last December weekly | full-time rates of wages for the classes of adult workpeople for which information is available were about 64 percent. on the average above the level at August. 191-4. As considerable reductions in normal weekly working hours have been made in nearly all industries the percentage increases in hourly rates of wages since 1914 are substantially greater, and probably their average level was between 80 per cent, and 90 per cent, above that of 1914. In order to measure the purchasing power of current wage rates the change in the cost of living mnst be borne in mind. Last December the percentage increase in the cost of living was -13, and the average increase for last year Was 39.7 per cent. in the building trades the hourly rates of wages increased by 77 per cent, for bricklayers, SO per cent, for masons, carpenters, and joiners, 83 per cent, for plumbers, 82 per cent, for plasterers, 99 per cent, for painters, and 101 per cent, for labourers. The increases in the weekly rates were 61 per cent, for bricklayers, 65 per cent, for' masons, plumbers, and plasterers. 64 poi- cent, for carpenters and joiners. 79 per cent, for painters, and 82 per cent, for labourers. ■- An accurate estimate cannot be made of the average increase in rates of wages in the coal mining industry, but average earnings a shift were 25 per cent, higher in Northumberland, 30 per cent, in Durham, 48 per c..it. in Yorkshire. 53 per cent, in Lancashire. Cheshire, and North Staffordshire, 59

per cent, in North Derbyshire and Notts, 32 per cent, in South Wales and Monmouthshire, and 29 per cent, in Scotland. For all the mining districts the percentage increase in earnings a shift was 41 per cent. In some districts there arc allowances in kind averaging ll.ltid a shift in Northumberland, Is 1.61 din Durham, and 4.47 d for all districts.

In, the engineering industry the increases in weekly time rate wages in the principal centres were 52 per cent, for fitters and turners, 50 per cent, for ironmouldcrs, 51 tier cent, for patternmakers, and 8-4 per cent, for labourers. In the shipbuilding industry the increases were' 44 per cent., for shipwrights, 49 per cent, for ship joiners, and 78 per cent, for labourers. In the engineering industry the increases in hourly rates of wages ranged from about 70 per cent, for skilled workers to about 105 per cent, for labourers; and in the shipbuilding industry the increases in the hourly rates of skilled men ranged from 65 per cent, to 70 per cent., and for labourers the increase was nearly 105 per cent. In the electrical installation industry the weekly time rates showed an increase of 77 per cent., and the, hourly rates an increase of about 97 per cent. For certain classes of iron and steel workers in South Wales the increase in weekly wage rates was less than 20 per cent. In the spinning section of the cotton industry weekly wages were generally about 38 per cent, or 39 per cent, above pre-war level, and the increase in hourly rates was 69 per cent, or 60 per cent. Most firms in the wool textile industry add a cost of living wage c; 52 per cent, to time workers’ wages and 45.76 per cent, to those of pieceworkers. . The average increase in the minimum weekly time rates in the hoot and shoe industry was about 90 per cent.

For the principal grades in the traffic sections of the railway service the wage rates showed a wide range of increases. For some of the lower-paid grades; on pre-war rates of about 18s a week, the increase was as much as 120 per cent. ; for certain classes of higher-paid men it amounted to a little under 90 per cent. In the tramway services the weekly wages of drivers were 88 per cent', higher, and those of conductors 99 per cent, higher. The Ministry of Agriculture estimates that the average of the minimum rates of ‘wages for .ordinary agricultural labourers in England and Wales was 30s 6Jd a week, an increase of about 70 per cent, over the average of the cash rates and allowances in 1914.