IV., V. & VI.—Rates of Wages.

In these three Charts changes in rates of wages are shown according to the method of Index Numbers, the wages in 1900 being taken as 100, and the wages in other years shown as percentages of the rates in 1900.

The first of the Charts illustrates the changes in the general level of wages in each of the years 1874-1905; the second shows the changes since 1874 in five principal groups of trades; and the third the changes since 1850 in agricultural labourers' cash rates of wages in England and Wales.

The changes in wages dealt with in these Charts are changes in the standard time or piece rates of wages of the same classes of workpeople throughout. They do not show changes in earnings arising out of changes in hours, variations in the extent of employment offered, or altered conditions of working.

The index numbers in the first Chart are the un weighted mean of the index numbers for each of the five groups of trades shown in the second, in which the index numbers are based, in the case of the building trades, on the hourly rates of wages of bricklayers, carpenters and joiners, and masons (74 different records being used); in the case of coal mining on the percentage changes on the "standard" rates of wages of hewers in the principal districts, weighted according to their relative importance; in the case of engineering, on the weekly rates of wages of fitters, turners, ironfounders, and patternmakers (36 different records being used); in the case of textiles, on the percentage changes in rates of wages of cotton spinners and weavers in Lancashire, and linen and jute operatives at Dundee, and in the case of ordinary agricultural labourers on the cash rates of wages paid on 115 farms.

It will be seen that in 1900 the general level of wages was higher than at any other period and although wages are now a little lower than at that date they are still above the level of any year prior to 1899. In the second Chart the great fluctuations shown in the wages of coal miners are noteworthy. In this industry wages are mainly regulated by the changes in the selling price of coal.

In the Chart dealing with agricultural wages since 1850 the records of 69 farms have been used.