Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 86.djvu/502

498 of instances for the men, under $1,000, and for the women, under $750. In most industries, from a third to a half of the men receive less than $500; and usually at least three quarters receive less than $750. Four fifths of the women are paid less than $500. Women working in the manufacturing industries receive, for the most part, wages varying from $250 to $500.

Much emphasis has been placed upon the wage figures derived in the course of special wage investigations, because in most cases these figures represent actual conditions at a definite time. There remain the general figures for manufacturing industries published by certain states and by the United States Census Bureau. In neither case do these figures materially alter the conclusions which were derived as a result of the study of special wage investigations.

The wage facts secured by many states are grossly inadequate. Nevertheless, there is a growing body of usable information relative to the wage scales paid in certain states. As regards the excellency of their figures, New Jersey and Massachusetts are well in the lead. Several other states are making strenuous efforts to duplicate or better their good work.

The state wage figures are usually given in two forms. First, in the form of wages for the entire state; and second, in the form of wages for certain industries. Several states present, in addition, wages for the larger cities. The figures for the entire state are meaningless in one sense, because of the great diversity of industries. In another sense, they are profoundly significant. The wage statistics, for example, of Massachusetts show for six hundred thousand men and women (out of a total population of 3,366,416 in 1910) what the wage scale is in the manufacturing industries. There could be no more effective metrical test applied to the community, unless the actual family incomes were measured. The wage scale for the manufacturing industries of a manufacturing state shows at least roughly the economic background of the people living in the State. For both New Jersey and Massachusetts, two of the six leading manufacturing states, there are extant sufficient wage figures to paint the economic background of the great body of the industrial population in these states.

An examination of the figures for various states, and for all of the leading industries of the country, corroborates the conclusions already made from the special reports. The wage rates are such that, making no allowance for unemployment, about one tenth of the males receive more than $1,000 per year, and about one eighth of the females more than $500 per year. At the same time, from a quarter to a third of