1922.] 



Labour on the Farm. 



701 



The recommendations of the Conciliation Committee as from 1st 

 October, 1921, for a 50-hour week, have been for the East 

 Biding, 39s. to 26th November, 1921 ; for the North Riding, 40s. 

 to 26th December, 1921, and 37s. to 1st March, 1922. The 

 average at the present time is approximately 35s. 



In pre-war days, the average farm labourer would receive as 

 wages approximately 20s. per week, and the Wages Board award 

 of 23rd October, 1920, theoretically increased the wages bill on 

 the farm to approximately two and a half times its pre-war 

 figure; but the limitation of hours and the necessity of employ- 

 ing more hands or the working of overtime by the existing staff 

 actually increased the wages bill in most cases to three and in 

 some cases to four times its pre-war figure. 



On the four farms mentioned above, the actual effect of the 

 shorter hours worked as a result of the operation of Wages Board 

 Orders is shown by the following table : — 



Table II. 

 Number of Men Employed. 



Farm 



Year ending April 6th 





1912 



1913 



1914 



1915 



1916 



1917 



1918 



1919 



1920 



1921 



1922 



H. 

 M 

 D. 



CM. 



1 

 16 



4 

 11 



1 



16 

 4 

 11 



1 



16 

 5 

 11 



1 



16 

 5 

 11 



1 



16 

 5 

 11 



1 



16 

 6 

 10 



1 

 17 



6 

 10 



1 

 17 



6 

 11 



2 

 15 



6 

 12 



2 

 14 



7 

 14 



2 

 14 



7 

 14 





32 



32 



33 



33 



33 



33 



34 



35 



35 



37 



37 



It will be seen that the number of men employed on the 1,300 

 acres concerned rises from 32 in pre-war days to 37 in 1921 — 

 an increase of nearly 16 per cent. Expressed differently, it 

 would seem that the reduction in hours worked necessitated the 

 employment of 7 men in 1921 to accomplish the work performed 

 by 6 men in 1912. 



The wisdom of the awards can be judged in one of two ways. 

 It may be claimed that wages should rise in proportion to the 

 cost of living, or, alternatively, that the amount paid in wages 

 by any industry must be finally determined by what the industry 

 can afford to pay. 



It is interesting therefore to compare the wages actually paid 

 on the various farms when viewed from both these standpoints. 



Comparison of Wages with Cost of Living. — In Fig. 2, an 

 attempt has been made to correlate the wages actually paid 

 on all the farms whose records go back to 1914, with the varia- 



