Wages, payment made for labor. The term is somewhat vague. As distinguished from the salary paid a manager, a clerk, a teacher, or a clergyman, and the fee of the lawyer or physician, the word carries with it the idea of manual labor. It is difficult to draw the line. We hear of a section man's wages and a railroad president's salary, but we may regard the conductor's pay as wages or as salary indifferently. The question of what wages should be paid, especially by owners of mines, building contractors, printers, manufacturers, and all large employers of labor is a difficult one. It is natural for the workman to desire all he can get, and for the employer to pay as little as he may. Some writers have tried to show that wages are ever the least that wage earners can live upon; others, that wages are determined by the profits of the business. It is certain that laborers perish when wages are not sufficient to maintain life; and it is equally certain that when wages are so high as to eat up all the profits employers go out of business and cease to pay wages. Between these limits a constant struggle is going on. An opinion is widely prevalent that the laborer should receive a living wage and a further share of the profits, if any. Many employers maintain that a profit-sharing system of payment secures interest in the success of the enterprise in hand and obtains the best service for the wages paid. Then, too there is the question of real and nominal wages. Real wages are to be reckoned in the quantity of the necessities of life that earnings will buy rather than in the dollars and cents of nominal wages. Statistics of prices and of wages show that real wages have advanced rapidly in the United States. The average wage of 1900 bought three times as much food, clothing, and general comfort as the wage of 1840, but people need so much more nowadays in order to be considered comfortable, that the wage earner has need for all he can earn and more into the bargain. According to the census for 1900 the manufacturers of the United States employed 5,370,814 wage earners, counting men, women, and children who worked by the day, week, hour, or piece, but not counting clerks, managers, etc. The total amount paid by manufacturers for wages during the year was $2,323,055,634, an average for the year of $432.53 per person. Counting 300 working days in a year, this gives an average wage of $1.44 per day. The wages of men alone are higher. For the period of five years from 1900 to 1905 the cost of living has risen much faster than wages. The same statement is true for the period 1905-10. Wages are higher in Australia, Canada, and the United States than elsewhere. Women weed the oatfields of Scotland for twenty cents a day. Unskilled laborers work in the smelting establishments of Glasgow at from thirty to sixty cents a day. Carpenters in Belgium are paid liberally, so employers think, at $1 a day. Farm laborers in Germany receive from twenty-three cents to forty-eight cents a day. Factory hands may be had in Japan for fourteen cents a day. The artificial flower makers of Saxony earn seven cents an hour; lace makers get two and one-half cents an hour. The weavers of Aix-la-Chapelle have from sixty to ninety cents a day. The broom makers of Milan work for thirty-five cents a day. The toy makers of Nuremberg earn from fifteen cents to sixty cents a day. The lemon pickers of Sicily earn from eight to forty cents; the licorice diggers of Turkey fifteen cents; the rug weavers of Smyrna nineteen cents a day. The French coal miner works for ninety-two cents a day; the Welsh shepherd for fifty cents; the Russian landholder hires men in the springtime for thirty-four cents and women for twenty-one cents, but in hay-cutting time he has to come up to forty-one cents for men and thirty-three cents a day for women, though, if he gives board, wages are five cents a day less for women and eight cents less for men. The tobacco planter of Java pays top prices when he employs men at sixteen cents a day, women at twelve cents, and children at six cents. The Chinese street laborer works for ten cents a day, but the painter, the paperhanger, the blacksmith, the carpenter, the mason, and the bricklayer expect from twenty to twenty-seven cents a day. Japanese mechanics in the cities begin at forty cents, but the more skillful workmen earn $1 a day. As to wages in the United States, definite information is published in the bulletins of the United States Bureau of Labor. The report for 1907 gives the average wage for forty-one industries. Representative wages are: Occupation. Wages per hour. Baker . . . . . $0.25 Blacksmith . . . . . .30 Stonemasons . . . . . .51 Bricklayers . . . . . .62 Plumber . . . . . .53 Carpenter . . . . . .40 Painter . . . . . .38 Hodcarriers . . . . . .31 Lumbermen, with board . . . . . .17 Streets and Sewers-- Contractors . . . . . .19 Cities . . . . . .22 Farm labor, with board . . . . . .10 Iron and steel workers . . . . . .13 to .98 Cigarmakers-- Men . . . . . .31 Women . . . . . .16 Woolen Mills-- Men . . . . . $0.15 to .20 Women . . . . . .10 to .16 Cotton Mills-- Men . . . . . .11 to .30 Women . . . . . .06 to .14 Clothing Factories-- Men . . . . . .21 to .44 Women . . . . . .09 to .16 Boot and Shoe Factories-- Men . . . . . .25 to .39 Women . . . . . .17 to .24 Bookbinders . . . . . .32 Job printers . . . . . .33 Compositors . . . . . .23 to .44 Press Feeders-- Men . . . . . .19 Women . . . . . .13 Proofreaders-- Men . . . . . .41 Women . . . . . .30 Newspaper Work-- Compositors . . . . . .51 Pressmen . . . . . .44 Stereotypers . . . . . .48 Linotype operators . . . . . .57 The prices given in the foregoing table are from seven to fifty per cent higher than those that prevailed in the same industries in 1890, the building trades having advanced the hourly wages forty-four per cent, and street contractors fifty-four per cent. The average advance for the forty-one occupations is twenty-eight per cent. A statement of the cost of commodities between 1890 and 1908 may be gleaned from statistics published in London by A. Sauerbeck and in Washington by the United States Bureau of Labor. The Sauerbeck table of prices is as follows: SAUERBECK'S TABLE OF PRICES. 1878. . . . . 87 1879. . . . . 83 1880. . . . . 88 1881. . . . . 85 1882. . . . . 84 1883. . . . . 82 1884. . . . . 76 1885. . . . . 72 1886. . . . . 69 1887. . . . . 68 1888. . . . . 70 1889. . . . . 72 1890. . . . . 72 1891. . . . . 72 1892. . . . . 68 1893. . . . . 68 1894. . . . . 63 1895. . . . . 62 1896. . . . . 61 1897. . . . . 62 1898. . . . . 64 1899. . . . . 68 1900. . . . . 75 1901. . . . . 70 1902. . . . . 69 1903. . . . . 69 1904. . . . . 70 1905. . . . . 72 1906. . . . . 77 1907. . . . . 80 1908. . . . . 73 The London statistics as given above cover the average prices of forty-five articles needed by a British workingman's family. Mr. Sauerbeck takes as a basis the average cost of these articles during the years 1867-77. Starting with 100 as the average price during these years, he constructed the preceding scale, showing that the same articles and quantities cost not quite three-fourths as much during 1908 as during the years 1877-87. The tables of the United States Bureau begin with 1890. Some 250 standard articles are grouped in nine classes. The average price of the articles for the years 1890-1900 is taken as a basis and is considered 100. The table shows that prices in this country ran down to 1896-7 and that they have been coming up ever since. The tables prepared by the United States Bureau of Labor are as follows: BUREAU OF LABOR TABLE OF PRICES. Farm Food, Clothes and Year. products. etc. clothing. 1890. . . . . 110.0 112.4 113.5 1891. . . . . 121.5 115.7 111.3 1892. . . . . 111.7 103.6 109.0 1893. . . . . 107.9 110.2 107.2 1894. . . . . 95.9 99.8 96.1 1895. . . . . 93.3 94.6 92.7 1896. . . . . 78.3 83.3 91.3 1897. . . . . 85.2 87.7 91.1 1898. . . . . 96.1 94.4 93.4 1899. . . . . 100.0 98.3 96.7 1900. . . . . 109.5 104.2 106.8 1901. . . . . 116.9 105.9 101.0 1902. . . . . 130.5 111.3 102.0 1903. . . . . 118.8 107.1 106.6 1904. . . . . 126.2 107.2 109.8 1905. . . . . 124.2 108.7 112.0 1906. . . . . 123.6 112.6 120.0 1907. . . . . 137.1 117.8 126.7 1908. . . . . 133.1 120.6 116.9 Fuel Metals Lumber & and and building Year. lighting. implements. materials. 1890. . . . . 104.7 119.2 111.8 1891. . . . . 102.7 111.7 108.4 1892. . . . . 101.1 106.0 102.8 1893. . . . . 100.0 100.7 101.9 1894. . . . . 92.4 90.7 96.6 1895. . . . . 98.1 92.0 94.1 1896. . . . . 104.3 93.7 93.4 1897. . . . . 96.4 86.6 90.4 1898. . . . . 95.4 86.4 95.8 1899. . . . . 105.0 114.7 105.8 1900. . . . . 120.9 120.5 115.7 1901. . . . . 119.5 111.9 116.7 1902. . . . . 134.3 117.2 118.8 1903. . . . . 149.3 117.6 121.4 1904. . . . . 132.6 109.6 122.7 1905. . . . . 128.8 122.5 127.8 1906. . . . . 131.9 135.2 140.1 1907. . . . . 135.0 143.4 146.9 1908. . . . . 130.8 125.4 133.1 Drugs House All and furnishing com- Year. chemicals. goods. modities. 1890. . . . . 110.2 111.1 112.9 1891. . . . . 103.6 110.2 111.7 1892. . . . . 102.9 106.5 106.1 1893. . . . . 100.5 104.9 105.6 1894. . . . . 89.8 100.1 96.1 1895. . . . . 87.9 96.5 93.61896. . . . . 92.6 94.0 90.4 1897. . . . . 94.4 89.8 89.7 1898. . . . . 106.6 92.0 93.4 1899. . . . . 111.3 95.1 101.7 1900. . . . . 115.7 106.1 110.5 1901. . . . . 115.2 110.9 108.5 1902. . . . . 114.2 112.2 112.9 1903. . . . . 112.6 113.0 113.6 1904. . . . . 110.0 111.7 113.0 1905. . . . . 109.1 109.1 115.9 1906. . . . . 101.2 111.0 122.5 1907. . . . . 109.6 118.5 129.5 1908. . . . . 110.4 114.0 122.8 The actual cost in 1901 was determined by the Bureau of Labor by taking the average expenditure of 2,567 workingmen's families. The following is given as THE COST OF LIVING. Food . . . . . $326.90 Rent . . . . . 99.49 Mortgage: Principal . . . . . 8.15 Interest . . . . . 3.98 Fuel . . . . . 32.23 Lighting . . . . . 8.15 Clothing: Husband . . . . . 33.73 Wife . . . . . 26.03 Children . . . . . 48.08 Taxes . . . . . 5.79 Insurance: Property . . . . . 1.53 Life . . . . . 19.44 Organizations: Labor . . . . . 3.87 Other . . . . . 5.18 Religious purposes . . . . . 7.62 Charity . . . . . 2.39 Furniture and utensils . . . . . 26.31 Books and newspapers . . . . . 8.35 Amusements and vacation . . . . . 12.28 Intoxicating liquors . . . . . 12.44 Tobacco . . . . . 10.93 Sickness and death . . . . . 20.54 Other purposes . . . . . 45.13 Total . . . . . $768.54 We may add that the cost of living rose rapidly during 1909-10. It is altogether probable that wages in Europe and America are approaching each other. Labor has had an outlet in this country; free fertile lands with the world's market for the farmer's produce have enabled wage earners to turn to the soil; but our cheap lands have passed into the hands of private owners. Pauper conditions, sweat-shops, and child labor in factories are symptoms that America is becoming more and more like Europe. See LABOR; STRIKES; SOCIALISM; COMMUNISM; COOPERATION; SWEAT-SHOP; CHILD LABOR.