The inclusion of the eighty-four workers, of whom we have sufficient details in firms R. to W., would affect the figures on p. 133 below very slightly, raising the median and upper quartile 2d., and increasing the proportion between 18s. and 22s. to 13½ per cent. of the whole instead of 12¼ per cent.

II.—GENERAL GROUPING OF WAGES.

The material is not sufficiently complete or homogeneous to allow any complete account of wages at any date; but the tables now given (supplemented occasionally by the raw material) allow us to offer an estimate of the grouping in a typical week of 1899, supposing each firm to be paying typical wages in one and the same week. This method is rough, and will not support any fine calculations to be based on it; but at the same time it affords a view, sufficiently accurate for most purposes, of the general trend and distribution of wages. All classes of workers, except apprentices and learners, are included.

AN ESTIMATE OF WAGES IN A TYPICAL WEEK IN 1899 OF 1,001 WORKERS IN ALL BRANCHES.

Less than 2s. 2s. to 4s. 4s. to 6s.6s. to 8s.8s. to 10s.10s. to 12s.
117416892131
12s. to
14s.		14s. to
16s.		16s. to
18s.		18s. to
20s.		20s. to
22s.		22s. to
24s.		 Above
24s.
17417713172551725
Of those above 24s.:
24s. to
26s.		26s. to
28s.		28s. to
30s.		30s. to
32s.		32s. to
34s.		36s. to
38s.
1164121

These figures are so similar in many respects to those which generally arise when a large group of trades are massed together, that they afford strong evidence that they make a fair sample.

Remembering the roughness of the hypothesis, and not assuming that these wages multiplied by fifty-two give annual earnings, we find, in a week which the employers regard as typical, the following: Average, 13s. 8d.; median, 13s. 8d.; quartiles, 10s. 6d., 16s. 10d.; dispersion .23. Thus, half the wage earners obtain between 10s. 6d. and 16s. 10d.; and 80 per cent. obtain from 7s. 4d. to 20s.

There is some doubt as to who are and who should properly be included at both ends of the series. At the lower end, no doubt, some learners have been included, and some piece workers excluded, for in a typical week there would certainly be some cases where the wages were abnormally low. On the other hand, in the large number above 24s., no doubt many above the status of the ordinary worker are included, and some are definitely stated to be forewomen.