The copper era., 1907-09-26
WAGES WENT UP LAST YEAR.
RE in Products Not so Great on Average
as WAGE Increase.

ne annual VI luG
bureau of labor into wages and the
retail prices of food, the report Uu
which has just been placed in
the hands of the printer, shows that
in the principal manufacturing and
mechanical industries the average
pay per hour in 1906 was regular
hours of labor per week 0.5 per cent.
lower and the number of employees
per cent. greater. The everage full
time weekly earnings per employe in
1906 we're 80 per cent. greater than
in 1905.
During 1906 wages increased gen.
orally in nearly all industries, forty
of the forty-one divisions covered by
the investigation showing SOME in
crease. The greatest advance was in
the manufacture of cotton goods,
where the average per hour in 1906
was lip per cent. higher than 1905.
In the manufacture of electrical APP
paratus, and supplies the increase
was 1O.1 per cent, in street and sewer
work done by contract 81 per cent.
in iron and steel, bessemer convert
ing, 8.5 per cent, in the making of
cigars S.4 per cent, in the manuafaC-
ture of bar iron go per cent. and in
the building trades 81 per cent.
Briefly stated, two industries show
ed an increase in hourly wages of
more than 10 per cent, seven an in
crease of 3 per cent. but less than 10
per cent, and thirty-one an increase
of less than per cent. In one
paper and wood pulp-there was a
decrease of IL per cent. In the in
du>tries as d whole, weighed accord
ing to Importance, the increase in
hourly wages was As per cent.
The fact should be borne in mind
that these figures apply only to wage
workers in manufacturing and mo
chanical lines, and do not show condi-
lions so far as salaried employees are
concerned.
The retail prices of food, weighed
according to consumption in repre-
sentative workingmen's families,
were % per cent. higher in 1906 than
in 1905. AS the advance in wages per
hour from 1905 to 1906 was greater
than that in the retail prices of food,
the purchasing power of an hour IS
wages, as measured by food was
greater in 1906 than in the preceding
year.
In 1906 the purchasing power of an
hours wages as expended for food
was Ia per cent. greater than in 1905
and the purchasing power of full
weeks wages was 1 per cent. greater
in 1906 than in 1905, or, in other
words, an hours wages in 1906 in the
manufacturing and mechanical indus
tries of the United States would pur-
chase IA per cent. more food than
the same wages in 1905, and full
weeks pay in 1906 would buy l per
cent more food than a full weeks re-
Enumeration in 1905.
The price of food was higher in
every month of 1906 than in the CORE
spending month of the preceding
year, which in February, 1906, was
only GA per cent. grew steadily
throughout the year, the price in
December, 1906, being 81 per cent.
above that of the preceding Decem-
her and As per cent. higher than the
average of 1906, which showed a
higher average than any of the sew
enteen years, from 1890 to 1906, COW
cred by the investigation of the
bureau of labor.
The increase in prices in 1896 over
1905 applied in unequal degree, to
twenty-five of the thirty articles in
Guided in the investigation. The
articles which showed the greatest
advances in price were: Lard 9.S per
cent; evaporated apples, 81 per
cent; fresh pork, So per cent; dry or
picked pork, 81 per cent; bacon, 81
per cent; ham, 7.3 per cent. The
rise in fresh fish and mutton also ex-
ceeded per cent. The only articles
which showed any material decrease
were flour and sugar.
The articles which showed the
most marked advance in prices in
December, 1906, over to December,
1905, were fresh pork, 1872 per
cent; dry or picked pork, 1l.9 per
cent; bacon, IL per cent; ham, 9.S
per cent The only articles which
showed any decided decline in price in
December, 1906, from December,
1905, we're potatoes IS per cent. and
flour rs per cent.
AS compared with the average for
the ten-year period from 1890 to 1899
the average wages per hour in 1906
were 24.2 per cent. higher, the mum,
Der of employees in the establish
ments investigated 42.9 per cent.
greater and the average hours OF
labor per week as per cent. lower.
The average earnings per employe
per full week in 1906 were 1875 per
cent. higher than those of the decade
named.
The retail prices of the principal
articles of food, weighed according
to family consumption of the various
articles, was 15.7 per cent. higher in