Page:EB1922 - Volume 32.djvu/974

940 1917-8, but all time-rates (artisans and labourers) in engineering had been raised 75. weekly before this award, and after it subse- quent increases were a flat weekly rate for time-workers and piece- workers alike. Before the war certain proportions had been established, by the working of economic forces modified by collective bargaining, between the earnings (whether time or piece) in various occupations and industries; the effect of these uniform increments was to modify these proportions very consid- erably. Some of the results are evident from Table 2 (p. 939) and can be studied also in the subsequent tables. In the six years building and engineering and dock labourers' wages had increased by a markedly greater percentage than those of building or engineering artisans or of compositors. In 1914 the bricklayer's labourer's wage was two-thirds of the bricklayer's, in 1920 it was nearly nine-tenths. To some extent the result was due to a defi- nite effort to raise the standard of living of the lowest-paid workers; the minimum rates fixed by the Trade Boards were in 1920 generally three times those in 1914; agricultural wages in Dorset were raised from about 145. to 465. but in Yorks from about 2 is. to only 495. No such tendency, however, is observable in the cotton industry, where the old method of percentage changes has been maintained; in the woollen industries perccn- I tage changes are still the rule, but increments are not given on the amount by which any pre-war earnings exceeded 30 shillings. In the reductions made in the early part of 1921 there was an expressed desire on the part of the workers that decreases should i be uniform for all grades; reductions on this basis tend to restore the pre-war proportions.

Most wage arrangements from 1917 to 1921 were dominated by the increase and subsequent decrease in the cost of living. The woollen industry was the first to arrange changes by a defi- nite formula relating them to the official index number of that cost (Sept. 1919). The railway agreement of Jan. 1920 included a similar formula, and some other industries have followed the same plan. Generally the increase on wages is somewhat less by the formulae than if the percentage changes of the index number were applied to the whole of standard wages, e.g. the railwayman gets only is. when the index number rises 5% of its 1914 level, which would only be sufficient if his standard wage was 255. or under, if the official index truly measured the cost of living; a fall in prices is therefore to the advantage of persons whose wages are thus determined.

Besides the movement already described there has been a tendency to remove local and occupational differences in wages by levelling up lower rates to higher. As a result of the Transport Workers' Inquiry (1920) the rates in all ports were raised to 8s. for the four hours half -day, whatever the previous amounts, and some differential payments for special work were abolished. In successive awards of minimum wages in agriculture the county minima show less deviation. In 1917 the increases since 1914 in all engineering wages were levelled up to 75. whatever the previous advances, but this award and subsequent national flat increases do not include all increases; nominally the rates in Jan. 1920 were pre-war time-rates + 73. to make permanent time- rates, + 263. 6d. war wage, + 125% on earnings. Actually the average of 120 districts for ironfounders shows an increase of 8s. 8d. in permanent time-rates and that of 189 districts for turners an increase of 95. 2d. ; these increases in the averages arise from the fact that in the districts where wages were much below the average in 1914 the increases were 125. or more, and throughout the list it is seen that the lower the wage the greater the increase. In the printing trade before the war wage changes were made by local bargaining, but in May 1919 the districts in England and Wales were arranged in six groups and the London district, and the standard rates were fixed at 775. 6d. (minimum time-rate, compositors, jobbing) in London, 753. in Liverpool and Man- chester, and 35. less in successive groups till in the lowest it was 60 shillings. Subsequent wage changes have been flat national increases, amounting by June 1920 to 173. 6d. Prior to the grad- ing there was considerable variation within each group. In other industries, also, there has been a tendency to standardize wages in groups of localities and to make changes nationally. The

movement is partly connected with a desire to establish a national minimum and to raise the wage of the worst paid, and partly to avoid competition from low-paid districts and a consequent cutting of rates. It is doubtful how far the pre-war rates were differentiated by economic causes, the local demand for the prod- ucts of the industry, the possibility of family earnings because of the presence of other trades, the relative cost of food and rent, and how far by accident and custom. It is certain that where real wages were specially high the most skilled workmen were to be found. The partial removal of these differences must have wide-reaching effects on local distribution of industry, whatever their cause. Also the change in the proportion of wages of differ- ent grades, discussed in the previous paragraphs, must tend to diminish the supply of skilled labour.

The rates expressed by the percentages in the preceding tables are all for the normal week. After the Armistice English work- men were at first more anxious to secure better conditions of work than higher wages, especially as it was not then anticipated that prices would rise further. In 1918 and 1919 an 8-hour day was generally adopted. More correctly this should be described as a 48-hour week in many industries; e.g. in textile factories 48 hours are distributed between Monday to Friday and Saturday morn- ing, whereas in building and dock labour overtime is payable after eight hours on any day and there is a Saturday half-holiday; the normal week is 44 hours. In mines, hours per shift were reduced from eight to seven, and, if 1 1 shifts are worked in a fortnight, weekly hours from 44 to 38 J. In many industries work is done in two spells instead of three in a day, work before breakfast being abolished; this tends to diminish lost time, but in other cases the time lost in starting and stopping is taken out of a shorter day and is relatively more important. There are no sufficient figures to show what has been the net effect on output, but if output per hour of nominal work has neither increased nor diminished, and there are no compensating factors, wage-cost per unit output rose in the six years 1914 to 1920 not in the rates 100 to 255 or 260 as in Table 2, but ibo to 280 or 290, since weekly hours have diminished more than 10%.

In the following paragraphs details of wage changes are shown for a number of industries, in illustration of the general move- ments now outlined.

Time-rates. In Table 3 illustrative figures are given. London builders' summer hours were reduced from 50 to 44 weekly be- tween July 1919 and July 1920. Leeds and Birmingham turners' hours were reduced from 53 to 47 and Manchester printers.' from 50 to 48 between July 1918 and July 1920. London dockers' daily hours were reduced from 10 to 8 between July 1918 and July 1919. No other changes of hours took place in the period. Turners' rates are typical of artisans in the engineering trades.

Table .?. Illustrative standard time-rates of wages.

July 1909 1914

1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920

London

Leeds Birming- ham

Manches- ter

Port of London

Brick- Brick- layer's layer labourer

Turner

Printer

(composi- tor)

Docker

Hourly rates lo^d. 7d. iijd. 8d. li|d. 8d. I2'<1. gd. I3fd. lod. I 5 id.' Hid.' 2id. I7d. 28d. 25d.

Weekly rates 345. 373. 373. 383. 403. 403. 4 is. 433. 493. 513. 573." 593.' OSS. Txl. 1 673. 6d.' 763. 6d.' 783. 6 '

Weekly rates 363. 6d. 383. 6d. 383. 6d. 403. 6d. 503. 703. 75s. 923. 6d.

Daily rates

Ss- 53. lod. 6s. 4d. 6s. lod. 73. lod. I os. 6d. us. 8d. 1 6s.

1 In these cases I2j% was added to the weekly earnings, whether they were as here stated for normal hours or increased by overtime. Thus the bricklayer's effective rate in July 1918 was iS-gd. per hour.

Building. The general movement of builders' wages in (he United Kingdom is shown in Table 4 (XVII. Abstract of Labour Statistics, Cd. 7733, p. 66; Labour Gazette, May 1919, p. 172, Aoril 1920, p. 170, and Feb. 1921, p. 62). The increase from 1909 to the end of 1913 was 4-4%- The lesser percentage for weekly than for hourly rates, shown in Table 4, is due to the reduction