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CHAPTER XII.—THE INCOME OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORKER.
We have now completed our endeavour to survey working con-
ditions in the different branches of industrial activity. This and the
three following chapters deal with matters affecting the standard of life of
the industrial worker. The present chapter is concerned mainly with his
income. After discussing the adequacy of the material available, an at-
tempt is made to give an indication of the wage levels in different indus-
tries and centres. Some observations are added on individual and family
earnings and on the expenditure of the family. We then pass to the dis-
cussion of methods of raising the standard of living, which is shown to
involve the raising of the standards of efficiency, of earnings and of health
and welfare. Numerous methods of increasing efficiency have been dis-
cussed in previous chapters, and health and housing are treated in subse-
quent chapters. The latter part of this chapter is consequently devoted
mainly to the discussion of possible methods first of enhancing earnings;
and secondly of making them more effective. Here, we deal under the
first head with the direct raising of wages by employers and then with the
fixing of minimum wages, adding some observations on the standardisa-
tion of wages in the leading industries. The prevalence of deductions
from wages and their regulation are also reviewed. Under the second
head, we deal with the reduction of expenditure on drink, leaving
the important question of reducing the burden of indebtedness for the
following chapter.
Statistical Material.
In our terms of reference we are directed to report on the
‘standard of living of the workers’. No part of our task has given
us greater difficulty, and we must frankly state our inability to give
this subject the treatment it deserves. It would, of course, be impos-
sible for any Commission which conformed to reasonable limits of
time and expenditure to attempt an original analysis of the standard of
living of several millions of workers scattered over a sub-continent, dis-
tributed over many industries, with a great variety of oceupations, and
separated into many groups by climate, race, civil condition, religion,
tradition, income and other factors. At the best we could hope to give
only a summary of the general position, based on the scientific observa-
tion of others, and rendered somewhat more vivid by our own observa-
tions and the experience of those witnesses who appeared before us.
But when we addressed ourselves to this less ambitious task, we found
that, even for this, the essential material was wanting. The only investiga-
tions so far made with any claim to statistical adequacy are those conducted
by the Bombay Labour Office in the principal centres of that Presi-
dency and one enquiry into the standard and cost of living of the working
classes in Rangoon. The Bombay enquiries consist of three investiga-
bions into wages in the cotton mill industry in that Presidency and inves-
tigations Into working class budgets in Bombay. Ahmedabad and
