BRITISH WAGES DECLINE.

Grey River Argus, 10 January 1928, Page 3

BRITISH WAGES DECLINE.

STEEL WORKERS’ LOSS. Miners 20 Per Cent. Lower. THAN BEFORE WAR. The official Ministry of Labour wage rates comp i rise ns with 1914 show the terrible state of the British workers. I hey take no account of short time or unemployment. Taking pre-war wages at 100, present rates are worked out as 170 to 17.5 for September. 1927. Taking off 9 per cent., for unemployment this results in a figure of to 159 above pre-war. The cost of living in September, however, was 107 above pre war. Tliis shows that the workers as a whole are worse oil tb.au before the war; even accepting the fall 'n the cost of living by .11 per cent., as effeet ive. By the way—arc housewives findmg that 9<l buys now what 10,1 bought in January as the Ministry of Labour says.’ Certain industries tire much worse off. Thus the coal mining figure (leaving unemployment out of account) is per cent., or 20 per cent., below pre-war. Allowing for unemployment tin* fall is about 30 per cent. In other mining and quarrying the figure is 30 to 70 per cent., above prewa r. I" engineering and shipbuilding it \ ari(>s from 3;» to 82 (for engineering labourers). Ihe South. Wales iron and steel workers are only 20 per cent., above pre-war or (leaving unemployment out of account) 70 per cent., below the pre-war real wage Isvel. ‘‘l’eaee in our lime, () Lord” must >e very like the famous Peace in Warsaw in the devastated areas where the Baldwin octopus reigns. Certain blast furnace labourers are 70 per cent., above. In the cotton industry weekly rates are 61 per c nt. Certain other industries, especially where the unskilled workter was below starvation level before the war. show a gain on the cost of living in tiie percentages. But this does not mean that they are get ing anything worth saying ‘‘boo” for. I nemployment in September amounted to 1,075,000 or 9.4 of the total of insured workers. Il is noteworthy that tinplate, building brick and tile manufacture and general engineering showed increases in unemployment.

'l'he outlook for the winter for Briish industry is admittedly dark, ven the “Economist” is driven to elusive psychologica I factors whose rigin cannot be precisely deter lined” to explain business men’s more hop ful outlook.”