WAGES IN AMERICA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18898, 26 June 1923, Page 8

WAGES IN AMERICA.

STILL ON THE UP-GRADE. The .article on money and markets in Commerce Monthly for May deals with the wages situation. It states that increase- of 10 to I2. 1 , per cent, had just been announced in tho cotton and wool textile industries. Common labour in steel mills was advanced 11 per cent, and in meat packing industries 10 percent. Wages in the building trade are high, in fact the National Industrial Conference Board reported 220 instances of wage increase, between March 15 and April 1-1. The article continues; —"Ultimately higher wages must be passed on to the consumer in higher prices, thereby accelerating the rise which has been so marked during tho past year. Although higher wages result at first in increased purchasing power on the part of wage earners, they afford no grounds for expecting further business expansion. According to tho Bureau of the Census there are now about 50,000,000 persons gainfully employed in tho United States, exclusive of those engaged in agriculture. However, about half of tho entire population is directly dependent on the prosperity of agriculture and the buying power of this immense population is not measured in terms of a flexible wage soahj, but in terms of the international market for farm products. Because of the high price of cotton, business is unusually good in tho cotton States, but low prices of wheat, cattle, and hogs are reflected in careful buying in the grain States,”