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WAGES AND HOURS OF LABOR IN MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES, 1890 TO 1906.

This article presents the average wages per hour, the average hours of labor per week, and the number of employees in both 1905 and 1906 in the leading wageworking occupations of 4,034 establishments in the principal manufacturing and mechanical industries of the United States. This report does not cover salaried employees in any industry. The figures of this article, taken in connection with the summary figures from the Nineteenth Annual Report and from articles in Bulletins 59 and 65 relating to wages and hours of labor, herein reproduced, bring into comparison all years from 1890 to 1906, inclusive.

In the year 1906 the average wages per hour in the principal manufacturing and mechanical industries of the country were 4.5 per cent higher than in 1905, the regular hours of labor per week were 0.5 per cent lower than in 1905, and the number of employees in the establishments investigated was 7 per cent greater than in 1905. The average full-time weekly earnings per employee in 1906 were 3.9 per cent greater than in 1905.

The variation in the purchasing power of wages may be measured by using the retail prices of food, the expenditures for which constitute nearly half of the expenditures for all purposes in a workingman's family. Retail prices of food are shown in the succeeding article in this Bulletin. According to that article the retail prices of food, weighted according to consumption in representative workingmen's families, were 2.9 per cent higher in 1906 than in 1905. As the advance in wages per hour from 1905 to 1906 was greater than the advance in the retail prices of food, the purchasing power of an

hour's wages, as measured by food, was greater in 1906 than in 1905. In 1906 the purchasing power of an hour's wages as expended for food was 1.4 per cent greater than in 1905, and the purchasing power of a full week's wages was 1 per cent greater in 1906 than in 1905, or, expressed in other words, an hour's wages in 1906 in the manufacturing and mechanical industries in the United States would purchase 1.4 per cent more food than an hour's wages in 1905, and a full week's wages in 1906 would purchase 1 per cent more food than a full week's wages in 1905.

As compared in each case with the average for the years from 1890 to 1899, the average wages per hour in 1906 were 24.2 per cent higher, the number of employees in the establishments investigated was 42.9 per cent greater, and the average hours of labor per week were 4.6 per cent lower. The average earnings per employee per full week in 1906 were 18.5 per cent higher than the average earnings per full week during the ten years from 1890 to 1899.

The retail price of the principal articles of food, weighted according to family consumption of the various articles, was 15.7 per cent higher in 1906 than the average price for the ten years from 1890 to 1899. Compared with the average for the same ten-year period, the purchasing power of an hour's wages in 1906 was 7.3 per cent greater, and of a full week's wages 2.4 per cent greater, the increase in the purchasing power of the full week's wages being less than the increase in the purchasing power of hourly wages, because of the reduction in the hours of labor.

The figures above quoted and other figures comparing wages, hours of labor, prices, purchasing power of wages, etc., in 1906 with other years are presented in the tables on pages 4 and 7.

Comparison of retail prices of food for each month of 1905 and 1906 is made on page 180.

The following table shows the per cent of increase or decrease in the wages per hour and in hours of labor per full week in 1906 as compared with 1905 in the several 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 1905, BY INDUSTRIES.

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