WAGES

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 28 November 1927, Page 8

WAGES

INTERESTING COMPARISONS U.S. AND EUROPE. New York, Oct 22. If paid in gold, a Paris bricklayer would have to work nearly ten times as many hours to earn an ounce of the precious metal as a Philadelphia bricklayer; a man in the same trade in London. England, would have to work nearly twenty-eight hours for every eight hours worked by the Philadelphia man; a bricklayer in Berlin, Germany, would have to work more than forty hours for every eight hours put in by the Philadelphia man. These figures, according to the National Industrial Conference Board, represent the differences in wages paid in the cities cited at 1926 rates, and with some modifications, the different wages paid in the countries generally in which they are located. In the printing trade, hand compositors in Paris have to work more than forty hours to every eight hours worked by their fellow craftsmen in Philadelphia to earn an equal amount in gold; the London compositor has to put in just about tivo days for every one day put in by the Philadelphia printer, and the Berlin compositor must work more than thirty hours for every eight hours worked by the Philadelphia man in the same trade. COST OF LIVING. Striking as are the differences in pay when measured in the gold value of the currencies of the different countries, they do not exactly measure the relaion otf wages paid in the United States and abroad unless related to the living costs in the respective countries in terms of purchasing power, the board points out. Thus, while the London bricklayer in terms of gold draws less than one-third the wages of the Philadelphia bricklayer, the average purchasing power of the hourly wage in London as measured by food and rent price levels is 60 per cent, that of the average Philadelphia wage in similar trades; that in Berlin is 40 per cent, of the Philadelphia wage; while similar figures for Paris are not available. As measured in gold, wages of masons and bricklayers in Paris have declined somewhat from 1923 to 1926, 124.5 hours of work being required al 1926 rates to earn an ounce of gold as against only 93.2 hours in 1923; London rates have risen, the London mason and bricklayer having to put in only forty-eight hours in 1926 as against 54.9 hours in 1923 per ounce of gold in wages; Berlin shows the greatest increase in wage rates, masons and bricklayers there in 1926 having put in only 69.1 hours of work per ounce of gold as against 124.6 hours in 1923.