INDUSTRIAL : ASSOCIATIONS OF CONSUMERS. 
77 
ployees of a Store Society would be found to have seats on its 
Committee. 
(5) Wholesale Societies. 
Projit-sharing with Employees. 
The English Co-operative Wholesale Society, which at the end 
of 1910 employed 4,823 persons in its distributive and 13,053 in 
its manufacturing departments,* does not now share profits with 
its employees. 
On this Society deciding in 1873 to establish its own work 
shops for production, the members, upon the recommendation 
of the Committee, adopted a scheme under which a bonus was to 
be paid to the employees based partly upon the profits made by 
the Society and partly upon an increase in sales. When the 
dividend upon purchases paid to members reached 2d. in the £, 
the employees were to receive a bonus of 2 per cent, upon their 
wages, and an additional \ per cent, for each increase of \d. in 
the £ in the dividend upon purchases, until the bonus upon wages 
reached a maximum of 4 per cent. In addition, when the sales 
of the Society for the year averaged £2 per quarter per head of 
the total membership of the shareholding societies, a further 
bonus of 1 per cent, upon wages was to be paid, with an additional 
| per cent, for each increase of 2s. 6d. per head in the average 
sales up to a maximum of 3 per cent, upon wages. This arrange 
ment applied to all employees of the Society, whether engaged in 
its productive or its distributive departments. 
In 1876 the Committee of the Society reported that the bonus 
system had not given satisfaction, and recommended its discon 
tinuance, this course being adopted at a general meeting of 
delegates by 150 votes to 78. 
In 1882 the Committee introduced into certain departments a 
system under which a bonus was to be paid based upon an 
increase in sales and a decrease in expenses, subject to a certain 
minimum of profit being shown on the working of the depart 
ment. This was extended to a larger number of employees during 
1885; but in 1886 the Committee again reported adversely upon 
the scheme, with the result that it was abandoned, and no further 
steps have been taken as regards Profit-sharing with employees. 
In 1907 a “ Thrift Fund ” was established by the Society 
for its employees. All the employees, distributive and pro 
ductive, are eligible for membership on completion of six 
* The English Wholesale Society carries on the following industries— 
building, metal working, the manufacture of textiles, boots and shoes, and other 
clothing, printing and bookbinding, woodworking, furnishing and brush-making, 
the manufacture of soap, candles, starch, &c., flour milling, the manufacture of 
biscuits, sweets, preserves, pickles, and of other food, and of tobacco, as well as 
farming and dairying.