WAGES AND HOURS OF LABOR IN THE WOOLEN AND WORSTED INDUSTRY, 1907 TO 1922-Concluded. Average Weekly Earnings of New York State Factory Workers in July, 1922. HE weekly earnings of factory workers in New York State in July, 1922, averaged $24.77, according to a press release issued by the State industrial commissioner. This average maintains the relative stability in average weekly earnings shown since the fall of 1921. The increases in July over the preceding month in some industries were due chiefly to seasonal activity or increased wage rates. The majority of the decreases were the result of summer vacations, inventories, repairs, or the weather. A few decreases were due to labor controversies or slack business. The greatest increases in average earnings in the general divisions of manufacturing were in the clothing industries. A further rise of over a dollar a week was shown in the men's clothing industry resulting from manufacture for the fall trade. In the women's clothing industry average weekly earnings increased $3 in July as compared with June. There was a very marked dullness in the waist and dress business in July, while labor trouble in the hat and cap factories in New York City and the slowing down of up-State shirt and collar factories caused a reduction of earnings in the men's shirt and furnishing industries. Earnings in the millinery industry were lower in July than in June. The slackness in hat-making establishments more than counterbalanced the higher earnings in feather and flower establishments. The increase in earnings in paper making ranked next in importance to the increase in earnings in clothing manufacture. Among other industries that showed higher earnings in July than in June were the stone, clay, and glass products group, although in the glass industry itself there was a slight reduction due to seasonal irregularity of work in a few plants. Higher earnings were also reported in the textile industries, an exception being noted, however, in the case of some knitting mills. There were increased earnings in the fur industry, canning, the beverage industry, the machinery and electrical goods division of the metal industries, millwork, and in oil refining and chemical plants. On the whole, there was a material decrease in earnings in July as compared with June in the railway equipment and repair divisions of the metal industries, although some of the shopmen's earnings were very much higher. Other reductions in earnings were reported in the meat packing, bakery, sugar refining, confectionery, rubber goods, silverware, jewelry, brass, copper, aluminum, sheet-metal work, cutlery, and piano industries, and in the manufacture of varnishes, paints, shoe polishes, and photographic supplies. No important changes in earnings occurred in leather or leather products industries. W Wages and Cost of Living in Aden, Arabia. AGES in Aden rose during the war, as an accompaniment to increased living costs, and are now showing a tendency to fall as the prices of foodstuffs and the cost of living generally decline. In the following table quoted from a consular report dated July 19, 1922, wages as compared with cost of living are shown: PRE-WAR, WAR-PEAK, AND PRESENT WAGES OF VARIOUS CLASSES OF WORKERS IN ADÉN (ARABIA) AS COMPARED WITH COST OF LIVING. [The rupee on July 19, 1922, was quoted at 3.45 rupees to the dollar.] The most important group of workers numerically is the coolie class, which comprises 40 per cent of the whole working population. All of the coolies are Arabs and are employed as water carriers, stevedores, in road building, and as assistants to skilled laborers. Their pre-war wages ranged from 8 rupees to 30 rupees per month, according to occupation; war-peak wages, from 10 rupees to 40 rupees per month; and their present wages are for most occupations the same as before the war. Pre-war cost of living among the coolies ranged from 4 rupees to 21 rupees, war peak from 6 rupees to 30 rupees, while the present cost of their family expenses runs from 5 rupees to 25 rupees per month. In order to reduce their living expenses, the coolies sometimes live in caves or "wherever they can find a level place." For those who desire more modern living quarters long barrack-like stone houses are provided, having one room, about 14 feet square, and a back yard or court to the family. For such housing accommodations the coolies pay rent of about 8 rupees per month. On public works an 8-hour day prevails, hours of labor continuing from 7 a. m. to 12 m. and from 1 p. m. to 4 p. m. Average Earnings per Shift in German Coal and Lignite Mines. THE HE average wages earned per shift by men employed in German coal and lignite mines are shown in the following table, which has been summarized from Wirtshaft und Statistik (Berlin), July, 1922 (pp. 467, 468). AVERAGE EARNINGS PER SHIFT IN GERMAN COAL AND LIGNITE MINES, FIRST QUARTER OF 1922, AS COMPARED WITH 1913. From the last quarter of 1921 to the end of the first quarter of 1922 average wages per shift of hewers and trammers in the German hard coal mines increased 29 per cent, while those of male adult surface workers advanced 31 per cent. Average wages of hewers and trammers in the lignite mines also increased 31 per cent from the fourth quarter of 1921 to April, 1922, and the average wages of surface workers in the lignite mines rose 29 per cent during the same period. Railway Shopmen's Wages in Great Britain. HE long negotiations relative to rates of pay and conditions of employment applicable to the different classes of workmen in the British railway shops were terminated by an award (No. 728) of the industrial court issued July 18, 1922.1 Broadly speaking the railway shopmen include the classes of workmen in the carriage and wagon departments, running sheds, mechanical and civil engineering departments, signaling and telegraph departments, and docks and marine departments, of the 16 railway companies which together with 33 trade-unions, the Amalgamated Engineering Union not being included, were parties to the agreement. But not all the workers employed in these departments will be affected. Only those men who have normally received 26s. 6d. ($6.45, par) per week war wages and who, during the war period received in addition the 12 per cent or 7 per cent bonus, will be included in the terms of the new award. Members of the telegraph and signaling department whose working conditions are adjusted under conciliation awards, and men employed in railway generating stations whose wages and working conditions are covered by award No. 414 and subsequent awards, as well as employees in the stores and hotel departments, are also excluded from the present agreement. But notwithstanding all the exceptions mentioned the wages and conditions of 110,000 men will be affected by this recent decision of the industrial court. The rates of pay fixed by the terms of the award appear in the table which follows. Grade 1 refers to fully skilled workers, grade 2 to those not fully skilled, and grade 3 to assistants. WEEKLY WAGES OF VARIOUS CLASSES OF BRITISH RAILWAY SHOPMEN, 1922. [Shilling at par=24.3 cents.] 1 Electrical Trades Journal, Manchester [England], August, 1922, pp. 115–121. |