Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-06-12
FARM WAGES SHOW
LARGE INCREASE
Jump of 24.2 Per Cent Over
Rate Paid to Laborers
Last Year

Information concerning the increase in
wages of farm labor last year has been
issued in a bulletin by the United States
Department of Agriculture. Wage rates
per month in hiring by the month or
season with board in 1917 ranged from
S2l.SS in the South Central States to
$36.23 in the North Central States west
the Western and Pacific. with a national
average of s2S.S7. Without board the
monthly rate for the United States was
S4O.43. with a range from $4,000 in the
South Atlantic States to Si9.+6 in the
West North Central and S63b9 in the
Western and Pacific. Harvest wages
with board were as high as SER per
day in the West North Central States
lantic. while the United States average
was $2.0S. The rates without board
were thirty-five to fifty-nine cents higher
in the various sections.
Outside of harvest day rates of wages
with board ranged from SLY in the
South Atlantic States to S1.91 in the
North Atlantic and s2.03 in the West
North Central, and the United States
average was s1.56. without board the
rates were tnlTtS-lNt 10 nlIlelS-lNt teIltS
higher.
AS a general average for the whole
country the increase in the rate of wages
per month with board in 1917 over 1916
was PAP per cent. The increase over
1910 vas 500 per cent. In the average
rate of wages for harvest labor with
board the increase in 1917 over 1916
was 23.1 per cent without board, 22.7
per cent For day labor. outside of har-
vest. farmers paid 23.s per cent more
with board and 24.7 per cent more with
out board. The general fact is that the
rates of wages for farm labor increased
almost one-uuarter in one year and
about two-ffths to one-half in seven
years.
The lowest relative advance in rate
of wages from 1915 to 1917, IL per cent
Is found in the Western n Pacific
States in hiring by the day with board
for work outside of harvest ana the
highest. 26.1 per cent In the South At
lantic in hiring by the month with board
Difficulties Of obtaining labor were
more generally least in temporary serN-
ice in harvest and more generally great
est in similar service OUTSIDE OF harNes..
To obtain laborers for a whole season or
a year with board throughout the vari-
Gus rroups Of States was easiest in the
East North Central. most difficult in the
south Atlantic. Hiring by the day was
the easiest proposition in the western
and Pacific when Will board and most
difficult when without board
The South experienced the greatest ell
fects of the increase of farm wages III
1917 over 1915, expressed as a per
centage of increase, but the greatest Ell
fects in terms of absolute increase III
dollars and cents were felt in the o.heI
great groups of States, most OF al III
the Western and Pacific, next below III
the North Central and third In oruer
in the North Atlantic group. The
largest absolute increase In wages ~
the South was in the South Atlantic
States in hiring by the month or season
with board. Monthly wage rates IN
creased absolutely in the average for the
United States by $3.50 in seasonal OF
YEARLY contracts when without board
Dav wage rates increased by 80 to Al
cents in the several varieties of con
tracts.