AMERICAN FARM WAGES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2012, 7 August 1919, Page 1

AMERICAN FARM WAGES.

According to a United States report on farm wages in America, when the labourers were hired only for the season, the average wages per month, with board, for the United States were: In 18G6, £2 12s 3d; in 1869, £2 13s O-Jd; in 1875, £2 15s Bd;.and in 1909, £4 5s 7d. In this year the corresponding wage in the western States was £7 5s 4d, in the northern central States £5 4s 7d, in the northern Atlantic States £5 Is Old, in the southern central States £3 8s 2d, and in the southern Atlantic States £3 2s 3d. When, for the calculation of the average monthly wages, the wages of the labourers engaged by the year, together with those hired only for the season, are used, the following are found:—For 1891 in the whole of the United States, £2 15s Cd. During the industrial crisis of the nineties wages fell, but rose again to £2 17s 2d in 1899, to £3 3s lOd in 1902, £3 17s 2d in 1906, and £4 2s 4d in 1909. According to the reports of the Inland Revenue the total amount of agricultural labourers’ wages rose from £73,513,733 in 1899 to nearly twice ns much, namely £130,769,951, in 1909, If it be considered that the average fate of wages had risen only by about 30 per cent., and that the number of labourers has certainly not doubled within the ten years, the great increase in the total can only be explained by assuming that the time during which agricultural labourers are engaged in the course of the year has of late years considerably increased. The average amount of wages .paid per farm was £l3 0s 3d in 1899, and £2l 8s 2d in 1909.