§ 94. Mr. HASLAMasked the Minister of Labour the approximate average percentage of increase in wages payable according to the latest Returns (hourly rates) in respect of bricklayers, masons (banker hands), carpenters and joiners, plumbers, plasterers, painters, and labourers, respectively, over the rates paid in August, 1914, also similar figures in relation to the wages paid in the engineering and shipbuilding industries, in each case showing the average percentage of increase, or otherwise, in wages, stating rates of datal wages and piece wages separately, where convenient, and the present percentage increase of the cost of living?
§ The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the MINISTRY of LABOUR (Sir Montague Barlow)The comparison of wages which my hon. Friend desires involves a detailed statistical statement. I will send my hon. Friend a copy of the current issue of the "Labour Gazette," in which he will find the latest published information, and I will also send him a tabular summary giving further details. As regards cost of living, the index figure at 1st March, the latest date for which it has been computed, was 86 per cent. above the pre-War level.