iron and steel industry were numerous, as were also those in silk and cotton manufacturing. On the other hand, changes in the bakery and building trades were less noticeable. However, no industry escaped a reduction in wages after 1893, and none failed to register a large advance after 1916.
From 1914 to 1918 the purchasing power of hourly wages seems to have decreased considerably. But, due to steadiness of employment and to the overtime worked, actual weekly earnings may have increased. In 1919 and the early part of 1920 wages and wage rates rose more rapidly than the cost of living. The conservative and carefully compiled budget for 1918, drawn up by the Philadelphia Bureau of Municipal Research, specified $1,637 as necessary to support a family of five in the " mini- mum standard of health and comfort." This standard is lower than the " standard of health and decency " adopted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Cost of living is no higher, and may be lower, in Philadelphia than in other industrial centres. The Philadelphia budget in Nov. 1919 required $1,803 and in Aug. 1920 $1,988. If the increase was distributed evenly throughout the nine months, the average wage in manufacture was insuffi- cient to support this standard. The deficiency in the case of textiles was between $450 and $570; in boots and shoes and paper manufacturing and in printing, more than $400; and in furniture manufacturing, more than $700. By 1920 the situation was better; although only in one industry studied, the manufacture of rubber goods, was the average full-time yearly income able to support [the standard. If retail prices of food are taken as an index of living costs, union hourly real wage rates in 1918 were 20% lower than the average for 1890-9, and full-time real union weekly earnings probably 25% lower, due to the decrease in the number of hours worked. Allowance must be made for the fact that food prices rise more rapidly than cost of living as a whole, and for ithe fact that the figures here refer to union scales of wages, which often represent the minimum wage actually paid. The total (income of most workers increased during the war period, due to isteady employment; to the overtime work, usually at increased rate of pay; and to the fact that the war called into industry Imore members of the family than are ordinarily wage-earning. It is necessary to call attention to the fact that unemployment thas never been taken into consideration in computing " real iwages." Until a coefficient of unemployment has been found, no chart of " real wages " will be able to show the actual state of well-being of the wage-earning class. The average retail price oljfood in 1920 was 103% higher than in 1913. During 1920 it continued to rise; the highest point reached was 119% higher than in 1913, in June and July 1920. After that the prices fell and reached a point in April 1921 52% greater than in 1913. According to the philosophy of employers, as living costs fall, wage rates also should fall. However, by April 1921 earnings had already decreased owing to the decrease in available employ- ment. It is not agreed that the 1913 standard of living was adequate: workers who have .emerged from the "minimum of subsistence " level are loth to return to an acceptance of insuffi- cient purchasing power. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported changes in rates of
5 between July i 1920 and March 31 1921. The total num- l;ri of changes reported was 2,714, of which 1,689, nearly two- lliinls, were increases. Two-thirds of the increases in the three
ths of 1921 were in the printing and publishing industry.
largest number of decreases were in the textile industry. The largest number of decreases reported were in Jan. 1921, the largest number of increases in July, Aug. and Sept. of 1920. The most frequent cut in wage rates was between 10 and 20%; 30% also was reported in a large number of cases. It must be re- . membercd that per capita earnings decreased still further, due to the decrease in the volume of employment. Under the agree- ment between employers and union in the men's clothing industry in Chicago, wages were reduced in April 1921 5% for those who had received a 5 % increase in 1919 and 10% for all others, except that no wages were to be reduced below $15 for the full-time week. In the same month the board of referees in the ladies' garment industry in Cleveland ordered the restoration of the
July 1919 wage scale, with some exceptions. The reasons given were, first that the cost of living had not continued to rise as had been expected but had fallen, and, second, the serious business depression. To secure the workers continuity of income, the employer was ordered by the award to retain the satisfactory worker 20 weeks in each half-year or to pay an unemployment benefit of two-thirds the weekly wage, the employer's liability to be limited to 7!% of his direct labour cost for the guaranteed period. In July 1921 the U.S. Railway Labor Board, after hearings, ordered a 12% reduction in wa.ges on 102 railways. Babson's Statistical Organization -reported the total earnings of employees in the manufacturing establishments in New York State in July 1921 as the smallest since May 1919. According to this study, wages reached a peak in Dec. 1918 at 120% greater than in June 1914, and again in Sept. 1919 at 129%, from which they rose to the highest peak in March and June 1920 with 177%. By April 1921 they had fallen to 95 % greater than in June 1914.
REFERENCES. The most comprehensive studies of wages in the United States are those made by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and published in special bulletins and in the Monthly Labor Review. Wages of farm labourers are reported to the Department of Agricul- ture. Wages of railway employees are published by the Interstate Commerce Commission. See generally Alexander M. Bing, War Time Strikes and their Adjustment (1921) ; David Friday, Profits, Wages and Prices (1920) ; Frank H. Streightoff, Distribution of Incomes in the United States (1912); National Industrial Conference Board Re- search Reports, 20, 31. Also the following articles: I. M. Rubinpw " The Recent Trend of Real Wages," American Economic Review (vol. iv., Dec. 1914) ; F. W. Jones, " Real Wages in Recent Years " (ibid., vol. vii., June 1917); C. E. Persons, " Woman's Work and Wages in the United States," The Quarterly Journal of Economics (Feb. 1915)- (J. R. Co.)
WAGE-SYSTEM IN INDUSTRY. The normal systems of
payment for the work of persons employed in industry under the capitalist system are wage-payment and salary-payment. It is not easy to draw an absolute line of distinction between these two forms of payment. Wages are usually paid weekly, and salaries over a longer period monthly, or quarterly, for example. There are, however, cases of weekly salaries, and of wages paid monthly. Moreover, a good many of the supervisory grades in various industries are paid what is called an "upstanding wage," which in many of its conditions approximates rather
to the salary basis of payment than to the wage as ordinarily
understood. Usually the salary-earner possesses a higher status
and a slightly greater measure of security than the wage-earner.
Wages arc, as a rule, paid only for hours actually worked, sub-
ject-to the conditions mentioned below, and any period of illness
or suspension of work for any cause, whether under the worker's
control or not, involves a cessation of the payment of wages.
Salary-earners, on the other hand, are in many cases paid during
periods of sickness, and are usually paid for a full week, or month,
even if some spells Of enforced absence from work or failure of
work due to some other cause are included. There are, however,
very many intermediate varieties between the continuous salary
paid throughout the whole year, and the wage paid only for hours'
actually worked. The salary-earner, it should be remarked, is
usually entitled to a longer period of notice, from a month up-
ward, than the wage-earner, who can usually be dismissed or suspended on a week's notice or less. The period adopted as a basis for the calculation of wages differs from trade to trade, and even from district to district or factory to factory within the same trade. In some cases the basis is hourly, in others a weekly rate of wages is laid down. In either case, there may be, but in the majority of cases is not, what is termed the " guaranteed week," that is, a guaranteed minimum weekly payment, irrespective of the number of hours of employment which the employed person is actually able to secure. In certain other cases, notably that of the dockers, there is the " guaranteed day," but not the " guaranteed week." The demand for greater measure of security than is afforded by hourly payment, without any guarantee of the week or the day, has increased, and a number of trades have secured concessions giving them guarantees of one sort or another.
Broadly speaking, the methods of remunerating the wage- earner under the wage-system can be divided into two main
