To further particularize the increases shown by this comparison table, would be merely repeating the figures shown on the table. The fact of importance brought out by the comparison is that the list of food articles considered is in its entirety, 40.96 per cent. more costly in 1910 than it was twelve years ago, while the average wages of factory and workshop employees-skilled and unskilled included, have advanced during the same period. only 22.2 per cent.; the increase of wages of these operatives, approximately 310,000 in number, has, therefore, fallen 18.7 per cent. short of keeping pace with the growing cost of food supplies. It is of course a matter of common knowledge that house rent, and practically everything in the nature of family and individual requirements have experienced an advance at least equal to the ratio shown for food. The building trades workmen alone among wage workers have succeeded in keeping their earnings nearly abreast of the rising tide of prices, as will be seen by the figures below. WAGE INCREASES IN THE BUILDING TRADES. The wages for 1908, quoted above, are union rates, and the latest for which official figures are available; if any change has been made since then it is in the direction of increase rather than decrease. Five of the trades named have secured advances in wages ranging from 45.3 per cent. for "plumbers' helpers," to 60.0 per cent for both "slate roofers" and "metal cornice workers." The upward advance of wages in these occupations has outstripped that of food supplies, but the others, although in the enjoyment of, in almost every instance, an equal daily wage at the present time, have received lower proportionate advances. In 1896, few, if any, of the workmen in the building trades worked less than fifty-four hours per week, while at the present time none of them work more than forty-four hours, and prob ably the working time of a majority of the men employed in these trades is not more than forty-four hours per week. |