table for each year of the period. As stated on page 5, the number of employees in each year covered by this investigation indicates in a general way the change in the number of employees in all of the industries of the country. These numbers, however, can not be accepted as an exact measurement of such change. The relative numbers given in this table, for the last few years at least, probably fall short of showing the general increase in the number of employees in all industries of the country. The table shows that the lowest number employed was in the year 1894, the relative number for that year being 94.1, which indicates that the number of employees equaled 94.1 per cent of the average number employed from 1890 to 1899. So far as these establishments are concerned it is seen that the number of employees engaged therein gradually increased from 1894 until 1903, when their relative number was 126.5. In the year 1904 there was a decrease to 125.7; in 1905, however, the relative number increased to 133.6 and in 1906 to 142.9, the highest for the seventeen-year period.

The full-time weekly earnings per employee in 1890 are expressed in the table by the relative number 101.0, meaning that they amounted to 101.0 per cent of the average full-time weekly earnings for the base period, 1890 to 1899. The lowest earnings for the seventeen years covered were in 1894, when they were represented by the relative number 97.7. There was a gradual increase to 112.3 in 1903, a slight decrease in 1904, and in 1906 the maximum (118.5) was reached, showing that in that year full-time weekly earnings exceeded the average for 1890 to 1899 by 18.5 per cent.

The relative retail prices of food given in this table are brought forward from the second article in this Bulletin that a comparison may be made with relative wages. In 1890 the relative retail price of food was 102.4, that is 102.4 per cent of the average retail price from 1890 to 1899, the base period. In 1891, 1892, and 1893 the relative numbers were 103.8, 101.9, and 104.4, respectively. In 1894 there was a sharp decline in the retail price of food, accompanying the reduction in wages per hour, and the prices continued to decline until 1896 when they reached the lowest figure for the period covered, or 95.5. After this there was an almost continuous increase from year to year until 1906, when the highest price was reached, the relative price for that year being 115.7, or 15.7 per cent more than the average for the base period.

The purchasing power of hourly wages as measured by retail prices of food was lowest in 1891 and 1893 and is expressed by the relative number 96.6, which shows that an hour's wages in those years would purchase only 96.6 per cent as much food as an hour's wages would purchase on an average from 1890 to 1899. The figures fluctuated

from year to year but there was an upward trend, the maximum. being reached in 1906, when the relative purchasing power of an hour's wages was 107.3.

The purchasing power of a full week's earnings was greater in 1896 than in any other year of the period covered and is indicated by the relative number 104.2, which means that it was 104.2 per cent of the average for the base period, 1890 to 1899. In 1897 and 1900 the relative purchasing power of a full week's earnings was 103.0 and in 1906 it was 102.4.

The relative wages per hour, the relative hours of labor per week, and the relative number of employees in each occupation covered by this investigation are given in Table II, pages 61 to 125. Similar relative numbers for each industry are given in Table III, pages 126 to 131. These tables give the relative numbers for each year from 1890 to 1906, inclusive, and indicate plainly the changes that have occurred from year to year.

The following table shows the per cent of increase or decrease in wages per hour and in hours of labor per week in 1906 as compared with the average for the ten years from 1890 to 1899 in each of the 41 industries covered by this report.

PER CENT OF INCREASE OR DECREASE IN WAGES PER HOUR AND IN HOURS OF LABOR PER WEEK IN 1906 AS COMPARED WITH THE AVERAGE FOR 1890-1899, BY INDUSTRIES.

PER CENT OF INCREASE OR DECREASE IN WAGES PER HOUR AND IN HOURS OF LABOR PER WEEK IN 1906 AS COMPARED WITH THE AVERAGE FOR 1890-1899, BY INDUSTRIES-Conciuded.

The industry showing the greatest increase in wages per hour in 1906 as compared with the average for the ten years from 1890 to 1899 was the building trades, in which the increase in wages per hour was 40.2 per cent. In street and sewer work done by contractors the increase in wages per hour was 39.8 per cent. Cotton goods show nearly as great an increase in wages, the increase being 39.5 per cent. Other industries showing an increase of more than 30 per cent are iron and steel, bar; iron and steel, Bessemer converting; and tobacco, cigars. Sixteen industries show an increase in wages per hour of from 20 to 30 per cent, and 15 industries show an increase in wages of from 10 to 20 per cent. In not one of the 41 industries has there been a decrease in wages in 1906 as compared with the average for the ten-year period 1890 to 1899. The average increase in wages per hour in all industries, due weight being given to the importance of the several industries, was 24.2 per cent. The method of weighting the several industries is explained on pages 23 and 24.

Thirty-eight of the 41 industries show a decrease in the regular hours of labor per week in 1906 as compared with the average for the ten years from 1890 to 1899. The greatest decrease was in the industry liquors, malt, in which the decrease in hours of labor was 12.1 per cent. The decrease in hours of labor in printing and publishing, book and job, was 9.3 per cent; in the building trades 9.1 per cent; and in street and sewer work done by municipalities direct, 9 per cent. Thirteen of the 41 industries show a decrease in hours of labor in 1906 as compared with the average for the ten years from 1890 to 1899 of more than 5 per cent. The only industries showing an increase in hours of labor in 1906 as compared with the average for the period named are candy, with an increase of 0.2 per cent, and iron and steel, blast furnace, with an increase of 0.6 per cent. The average decrease in hours of labor in all industries,

taken as a whole, was 4.6 per cent. The hours of labor in the slaughtering and meat-packing industries are not reported for the reason stated in footnote on page 58.

EXPLANATION OF SCOPE AND METHOD.

This investigation constitutes the fourth of a series relating to wages and hours of labor. The results of an investigation of wages and hours of labor in the United States, covering the years from 1890 to 1903, were presented in the Nineteenth Annual Report of this Bureau. The results of the second investigation in this series, covering the year 1904, were presented in Bulletin 59; and the results of the third investigation, covering the year 1905, were presented in Bulletin 65.

In making the investigation of rates of wages and hours of labor the design has been to cover the principal distinctive wage-working occupations in the leading manufacturing and mechanical industries in the United States with a view to securing data that would be representative of conditions and show the trend of wages and hours of labor. The investigation covers those industries in which the wages paid in the United States in one year were $10,000,000 or over as shown by the census of 1900. The office and field force available for the prosecution of the work has not admitted of the extension of the investigation to cover transportation, mining, agriculture, and the other great industrial groups.

The data presented in this article were secured in all cases by personal visits of special agents of the Bureau to the several establishments represented, and have been taken directly from the pay rolls and other records in existence and available for reference.

An examination of Table I shows that all occupations usually pertaining to the various industries are not covered. As has been mentioned, this is in accordance with the plan adopted of securing data for only the important and distinctive occupations which are considered representative of each industry. This plan has resulted in a saving of time in the collection of the data, without materially affecting the representative character thereof. Data concerning all occupations engaged in each industry would be desirable, but the work necessarily has been restricted.

In outlining this investigation it was recognized that a comparison of wages and hours of labor for one year with those for another year could not be made for establishments as a whole, owing to the changes that so often take place in the relative number of persons employed in the several skilled and unskilled occupations engaged therein, and

that comparisons, therefore, must be made within the limits of the occupation. All important occupations pertaining to a general industry are not always to be found in a single establishment; for this reason the number of establishments for which data are reported is not the same for each occupation in an industry. The following table shows the industries covered in this article, the number of different occupations covered for each industry, the number of establishments in each industry from which data were secured, and the number of employees in each industry covered by the data secured:

INDUSTRIES, NUMBER OF OCCUPATIONS AND NUMBER OF ESTABLISHMENTS FROM WHICH REPORTS WERE SECURED, AND NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES COVERED, 1905 AND 1906.

From the above table it is seen that from 4,034 establishments in the 41 industries data were secured covering 338 occupations and 314,033 employees in 1905 and 334,107 employees in 1906. In 28 of the 338 occupations data were secured and are shown for both males and females.

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