1893 the Two Republics, an English paper published in Mexico, stated: "It is officially announced that the average daily wage in this country is 27 cents." The paper declared that this was "probably at least 10 cents more than it was 20 years ago." In 1896 Matias Romero, one of the best Mexican authorities, stated that the average wage of day laborers was about 37½ cents.
Industrial wages have risen with the growth of Mexican industry. Official statistics showing the usual payments at various periods are not available. A study made just before the conditions of the old régime were upset reported about 117,992 persons as engaged in industry, of whom 100,717 were men and 17,275 women.[1] The political divisions from which the greatest number of industrial workers were reported were, in order, Vera Cruz, the Federal District, Nuevo Leon, Jalisco, Puebla, Oaxaca, Mexico, and Michoacan. The least industrial regions were Tamaulipas, Lower California, Colima, Campeche, Chiapas, and Yucatan. Industrial wages were highest in the states which had the greater industrial development. The higher wages for men and for women were found in the states bordering the United States and in those in which the stimulus of foreign enterprise had most deeply affected the local life. This contrast is true, indeed, in agricultural as
- ↑ Of course, since there are no official statistics available for the making of which "industry" is closely defined, such statements as the above can only approximate the truth. There is no way of telling, for example, whether any attempt was made to include small household industries, though it appears they cannot have been covered.
