THE RURAL PROBLEM 125 



APPENDIX C. 



THE FOLLOWING IS A TYPICAL REPORT FROM AN 

 INVESTIGATOR ON THE WAGES OF AGRICULTURAL 

 LABOURERS IN THE MID-DIVISION OF OXFORDSHIRE. 



The ordinary agricultural labourer works from 7 to 5, less li 

 hours for meals, 6 days a week = 51 hours. 



The usual rate of wages is 12s. per week, or under 3d. an hour : 

 but in some districts a fair proportion of the labourers get 13s., 

 and a few 14s. per week. I know of three farmers who employ 

 no man at less than 15s. per week, but it is alleged by other 

 farmers that the men work longer hours, and probably this is true. 



When the wages are over 12s. per week, it appears to be due 

 to the employer being more generous than his fellows, or to the 

 individual labourer being an exceptionally good workman. In 

 some few instances the higher rate has been due to the inability of 

 the employer to get men to work for 12s., but I am inclined to 

 think that such cases are very rare. 



Here and there one hears of men working for lis. per week, but 

 I have come to the conclusion that in such cases the men have 

 some mental or physical deficiency which prevents them doing a 

 fair day's work. (Low wages doubtless the cause of this as well 

 as the effect.) 



The wages mentioned are for " day-work," and some employers 

 send their men home on wet days, and the men earn nothing. It 

 is this " losing wet time " that accounts for the perfectly accurate 

 statement of Mr. George Edwards that he heard of agricultural 

 labourers in this county who only earned 10s. or lis. per week, 

 but the employers of such men would strenuously deny that they 

 paid any man less than 12s. per week. This system of stopping 

 the men on wet days appears to be a practice of individual em- 

 ployers rather than a general custom. 



It is seldom that this class of labourer gets a cottage rent free. 

 Usually he pays from Is. 6d. to 2s. 6d. per week. 



Allowances of milk, fuel, etc., are exceptional, and it is only a 

 small minority who get an allotment rent free. 



It appears to be impossible to obtain an average of the " extra 

 earnings " of these labourers, as custom varies widely in different 

 parishes. In some parishes all the men get extra in hay and corn 

 harvests is two or three pints of beer, or 4d. per day as its 

 equivalent, although they work three or four hours longer every 

 day. In other villages they get 15s. per week and 6d. per day 

 " beer-money," or its equivalent in beer, for about ten weeks 

 instead of their ordinary week's wage of 12s. In others they get 

 3d. per hour overtime plus 6d. per day '* beer-money." In others 

 a lump sum is paid at the end of the hay harvest, and a further 



