EFFICIENCY WAGE STANDARDS 



259 



Cumulative Percentages of Males receiving certain Classified Weekly 

 Earnings. Compiled from certain Efforts 1908-1910 



Classified Weekly 

 Earnings 



Under! 8 



Under 12 



Under 15 



Under 20 



$20 and over 



Total employed.. 



Massachu- 



setts,521 Years 



and Over 



12 

 52 

 72 

 92 

 8 

 350,118 



New Jersev^ 



1909, 16 Years 



and Over 



18 

 57 

 74 

 91 

 9 

 204,782 



Kansas 1909/ 

 16 Years 

 and Over 



46 



70 



91 



9 



50,720 



Railroads 10 



oftheU. S. 



1909. All 



Males 



22 

 51 

 78 

 92 

 8 

 1,502,823 



year) ; while less than one tenth receive wages of more than $1,000 per 

 year. All of the reports, therefore, present a remarkably uniform 

 picture of the wages of adult males. 



Here, then, is an effective answer to the question, " What are wages ?" 

 A study of the above table shows that half of the adult males working in 

 the industrial sections of the United States receive less than $600 per 

 year; three quarters are paid less than $750 annually, and less than 

 one tenth earn $1,000 a year. These figures are not accurate, however, 

 since they are all gross figures, including unemployment. They should 

 be reduced by, perhaps, 20 per cent.,^^ since that reduction would make 

 all due allowance for unemployment, varying with the year, the location 

 and the industry. Making, therefore, a reduction of one fifth in those 

 gross earnings, it appears that half of the adult males of the United 

 States are earning less than $500 a year ; that three quarters of them are 

 earning less than $600 annually ; that nine tenths are receiving less than 

 $800 a year, while less than ten per cent, receive more than that figure. 



Briefly summarized, the available wage data lead to these conclu- 

 sions for the localities in which the data were collected, and by refer- 

 ence for neighboring localities. The annual earnings (unemployment 

 of 20 per cent, deducted) of adult males employed east of the Rockies 

 and north of the Mason and Dixon Line are distributed over the wage 

 scale thus: 



Annual Earnings 

 Under $200 . 



Adult Males 



Under $325 1/10 



Under $500 1/2 



Under $600 3/4 



Under $800 9/10 



"Statistics of Manufacture, 1908, Boston, 1909, p. 82. 



'Bureau of Statistics, 1909, Camden, 1910, p. 120. 



' Annual Eeport Bureau of Labor, 1909, Topeka, 1910, p. 10. 



» Bureau of Labor Statistics, Wisconsin, 1907-08, Madison, 1909, p. 464. 



^Eeport on Strike at Bethlehem Steel Works, C. P. Neill, Washington, 1910, 

 p. 60. 



^° Annual Eeport Statistics of Eailways, 1908-09, pp. 34 and 40. 



" ' ' Unemployment in the United States, ' ' Scott Rearing, Quarterly Publica- 

 tions American Statistical Association, September, 1909, p. 539. 



