Out of the 130 lists we have, showing the actual earnings week by week of individuals for periods of one to fifteen years, thirty-nine have been selected, twenty-six of which are tabulated on the following pages ([Appendix VI].), and twelve of which are represented in the following diagrams. These have been selected as illustrating the various classes of workers and of work.
The most noticeable characteristic of the diagrams is the frequency and violence of the fluctuations, and the same is found in a study of the original figures throughout.
A few time hands ([Appendix VI].; diagram C), are nearly regular; only one shows perfectly regular earnings; many fluctuate as rapidly as the piece workers (Appendix VI.; diagram D. 2), and on the sheets we have several actual records of lost time and overtime, showing how these changes arise; others show a steady increase with slight movements (Appendix VI.; diagram A. 4).
The four Bank Holiday seasons are marked on most of the diagrams and wage lists.
The most interesting, novel, and important feature of these lists is the light thrown on the very obscure relation (obscure in all branches of industry) between "nominal," "average," or "typical" wages and actual annual earnings; there are in existence very few actual records of individuals' earnings over a series of years for any workers in the United Kingdom. The workers included in the list are among the more regular ones, who succeed in keeping their place month after month. Though the wages vary so greatly week by week, yet when we come to take the average over any period greater than, say, two months, we find there is but little variation. Thus, in the example from Firm B. in diagram, the quarterly average is between 16s. and 17s. for nine years, except for absence in two quarters, and the annual average is still more regular. The great bulk of the regular workers (folders and the like) make a sum between £30 and £40 every year, and between £7 and £11 every quarter.
In view of this result, periodic pressure becomes relatively unimportant for the regular hands. There is no season in the industry as a whole shown in the wage lists. The different firms and different workers have in many cases their regular times of pressure like bank clerks and schoolmasters; these times are sometimes monthly, sometimes quarterly. In other cases no rule is to be discovered.
The most important effect of this irregular pressure is in the number of jobbers employed.
VI.—JOBBERS.
Jobbers usually come in at the busy season and make good money. As they go from house to house, it is impossible to get a full account of any particular jobber's earnings.
Jobbers are frequently employed in Firm B, and in many cases the highest wage earned is by a jobber. Thus in the last week of April, 1895, out of thirty workers, fifteen were jobbers; the eleven highest sums were earned by them, five being over £1.