WAGES AND LIVING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 10 May 1913, Page 4

WAGES AND LIVING.

According to rove*tigation.s made by the Conmonwealth Statistician, workers have'not reaped any material advantage from increased wages, says the Melbourne Age. In his latest report Mr Knibbs shows that while wages»havo advanced daring recent years, tho effect has been more than counterbalanced by the increased cost of living and tiouso rents. A computation dealing with the average amount of wages received by workers throughout the Commonwealth shows . that for every sovereign received in 1891 the wage-earner now receives 24s 3d. from 1891 to 1901 tho averago wage for a.ll states did not .show any increase, but during this term it fell in Xew South Wales. Queensland and Tasmania, and correspondingly increased in Victoria, South Australia, and Western Australia. The increase in wages, however, is -nost marked in Victoria, the advance being (is 4d in every pound. The smallest increase is attributed to Queensland, where for every pound received in wages in 1891 tho worker now receives 22s 6d. The percentage increases for Victoria and Queensland are therefore 31.? per cent, and 10.8 per cent.-'respectively. On the other hand, the cost of living has also considerably advanced during the period under review, so that the effect of better wages is practically nullified by the higher cost of commodities. While the wage-earners of the Commonwealth have benefited to the extent of 4s 9d in the pound pin.ee 1901. | the jpin i, s almost counter-balanced by the diminishing purchasing power of money. The conimoditias wJiieh cotild be obtained far ]7h 7d in 1901 now cost tho householder 22«.