what extent and in what manner it is almost impossible to determine. Many societies, however, state that their employees get the same amount per pound on their wages as is paid to the members on their purchases.' It should, however, be noted that the question asked by the Union was, 'Is there any system of Profit-sharing in force in your district, either by way of commission, bonus, or otherwise?' Thus it is likely that some of the affirmative replies refer, not to Profit-sharing, but to the payment of commission on sales--a practice by no means identical with the payment of 'bonus to labour,' i.e. the allotment to employees of a share in profits.
That a certain number of co-operative societies of Class A practise Profit-sharing by giving to their servants a bonus at the same rate as the rebate or 'dividend' paid to purchasers is all that can be ascertained. This dividend is in a fairly successful society at the rate of from five to ten per cent.; sometimes it reaches twelve and a half per cent., and occasionally even a higher figure. Whether, with regard to the employees of those co-operative societies which pay 'bonus to labour' in 'distribution,' it could safely be asserted that the whole of this bonus is a clear addition to their normal remuneration is extremely doubtful. For with regard to shop assistants there is no recognised standard rate of pay; and there can be no question that in a considerable number of instances the employees of these profit-sharing co- operative societies consent, in consideration of their right to receive 'bonus to labour,' to accept lower wages than they would otherwise demand and obtain.
Hitherto I have been dealing with Profit-sharing so far as it concerns salesmen, &c.; with respect to the workmen employed in the 'productive' departments of 'distributive' stores the comparative infrequency[1] of the payment of 'bonus to labour' may be judged by the facts stated in the Report of the Cooperative Central Board for 1889. An enquiry having been addressed to each of the societies included in the Co-operative
Union (798 in number), asking whether it 'admitted the workers
- ↑ Speaking generally, with regard to the various branches o! manufacture carried on, whether in the 'productive' departments of 'distributive' societies, by the Wholesales, the Supply Associations, or the 'Productives,' Mr. Benjamin Jones, one of the first of living authorities on Co-operation, declared in 1889 that the amount of production carried on upon a non-profit-sharing basis 'is fully £3,000,000 a year; while the amount of all the many other forms of co-operative production is only one-tenth of this, being less than £300,000 a year.' The total number of the operatives employed in 'production' by these co-operative societies of every kind is estimated at about 15,000.
