Major BARNESasked the Minister of Labour if he will say, in respect of the increases and decrease of wages for the year 1921, given on page 6 of No. 1 of Volume 30 of the "Labour Gazette," namely, total increase of £700,000 and total decrease of £6,700,009, what were the comparable figures for the years 1914, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1919, and 1920?
§ Dr. MACNAMARAThe totals of(a) all the increases and (b) all the decreases, in weekly rates of wages, reported to the Department in the industries covered by the statistics, for the years 1914 to 1920, were approximately as shown below.* The figures given are provisional, and may be subject to slight revision when finally completed.
1045W
Year. Increases. Decreases. Net Increase.† £ £ £ 1914 53,000 40,000 13,000 1915 823,000 15,000 808,000 1916 858,000 5,000 853,000 1917 2,944,000 6,000 2,938,000 1918 3,371,000 1,000 3,370,000 1919 2,439,000 2,000 2,437,000 1920 4,801,000 4,000 4,797,000 * The statistics are exclusive of changes affecting agricultural labourers, police, Government employés, domestic servants, shop assistants and clerks. Changes in the wages of seamen are also excluded for the years 1914 to 1916, complete figures not being available for those years, but are included in subsequent years. The changes in wages reported to the Department relate mainly to organised groups of workers. Many changes in the wages of unorganised workers are not reported. † In 1914 some workpeople obtained a net increase in wages whilst others sustained a net reduction. In each of the years 1915 to 1920 the workpeople who shared in the reductions in wages all obtained increases of greater amount during the same year.