CONTENTS.

Paze.

Wages in the United States and Europe, 1870 to 1898
Digest of recent reports of State bureaus of labor statistics:

C65-693

Laws of various States relating to labor enacted since January 1, 1896.
Recent Government contracts

762-787

788

III

WAGES IN THE UNITED STATES AND EUROPE, 1870 TO 1898.

In order to secure original wage data for certain skilled trades for leading cities in this country and some of the industrial centers in Europe, the Department some time ago invited the cooperation of the head of the labor department in England and the chiefs of the bureaus of labor of France and Belgium. These gentlemen very kindly consented to supervise the collection of the facts required. The results are presented herewith. Our most cordial acknowledgments are due to H. Llewellyn Smith, esq., commissioner for labor of England; M. C. Moron, chief of the bureau of labor of France, and M. C. Morisseaux, chief of the bureau of labor of Belgium. The care exercised by these gentlemen has resulted in furnishing the Department with some very accurate information. The tables which follow are the results of their efforts so far as Great Britain, France, and Belgium are concerned, and of recent original inquiries by the agents and experts of this Department so far as the cities in the United States are concerned.

This article does not in any way deal with prices. Prices from a period, in most cases, earlier than 1870 up to October, 1892, are shown, by years, in the report made in 1893 by the Senate finance committee (Wholesale Prices, Wages, and Transportation). Probably since 1892 the tendency has been slightly downward. It is not therefore necessary to discuss prices in connection with the wage rates given. If prices on the whole are stationary and wages have increased, every such increase means greater purchasing power of a day's work. If at the same time there is a decrease in prices the increase in the purchasing power of a day's work is so much the greater.

These statements should be considered when the tables presented are being studied.

It will be noticed that the occupations included in the tables are such as are susceptible of accurate definition, and thus may readily be found in all the countries mentioned. The difficulty of determining the equivalent in foreign countries of the various occupations known to us has necessarily limited the number covered. In all, 25 occupations were selected, and in most instances quotations for each were secured from at least two establishments in each city. The data are from firms that have existed and have done business continuously since 1870, and the facts in most instances, in accordance with the rule of the Department, have been taken directly from the pay rolls. Thus continuous and accurate returns for the period covered have been made possible, greatly enhancing the value of the tables, which, in the brief form here given, are the result of a large amount of data showing for each occupation and each year the number of employees working on full time and receiving each specified rate of pay. This information in its detail is exceedingly interesting, but almost 400 pages of the Bulletin would have been required for its publication, and for this reason only the briefer summaries of this mass of data are shown in the tables which follow.

The cities of Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburg and Allegheny, Richmond, St. Louis, St. Paul, and San Francisco have been covered in the United States, and the period comprises the years from 1870 to 1898, while abroad wages were secured from London and Manchester in England, Glasgow in Scotland, Paris in France, and Liege in Belgium, the years covered being those from 1870 to 1896. Owing to the difficulties and delay in securing foreign wages, no data for 1897 and 1898 were obtained.

Table I gives the actual average daily wages in the 25 selected occupations from 1870 to 1898, inclusive, in each of the 12 cities in the United States just mentioned, as shown by the summing up of the many quotations of individual rates paid, which were secured in most instances directly from the pay rolls of the various establishments. A column has been added, showing for each occupation the average daily wages for the 12 selected cities combined. These averages do not represent the average wages paid in the specified occupations for the entire country, but are simply averages of the items given. Being for the larger industrial centers only, the average is probably somewhat higher than that for the entire country. Agreement as to what might fairly be called an average for the entire country would be extremely difficult, and any method of arriving at such might be open to criticism. A request for the average daily wages of blacksmiths in the United States in 1882, for example (and such requests are frequent), could hardly be given a statistical reply, or one not open to misunderstanding, but a reply that the average for 12 of the leading industrial centers was $2.644 would be a reply at once definite and susceptible of no misunderstanding. o meet such needs these averages have been given.