RAILWAYS,

147

actually received. The same may alse be said of bonus additions to
provident funds and gratuity benefits, especially as we are informed that
only about one-third of the workers are actual subscribers to Railway
Provident Funds. The cumulative value of these concessions and additions
 to ordinary wages is considerable, and those railway workers in
receipt of them undoubtedly have advantages enjoyed by few industrial
workers. We have been furnished With comparisons of rates of wages
ruling in different industries and dea] with this question in another section
of our Report. Here we need only express the opinion that railway
service is becoming increasingly attractive, with the result that not only
is a better type of applicant available, but the supply generally is in excess
of requirements.

Wage Movements,

In pre-war days, wages were fixed in accordance with the rates
prevailing in other industries In recent years, however, rates have been
revised to meet changed conditions in the cost of living and improved
standards of comfort, and, although there are differences of opinion on this
subject, it may be accepted that the law of supply and demand has ceased
bo be the sole determining factor. Except in one or two cases, service
agreements contain no reference to rates of wages, although schedules of
rates are in existence on all railways. There is no uniformity of practice
on the various railways or even in similar departments of the same
tailway. Pay generally is fixed on an incremental basis so as to
admit of the grant of increases as an employee’s service and age
increase. Certain classes are divided into grades, and Promotion from
one gradeto another depends on the occurrence of a vacancy in the
higher grade and on the suitability of the men for such promotion.
As a rule the initial pay given is the minimum pay of the scale, although
exceptions are frequently made, for example in the case of labourers
and of men recruited for some workshops who, after trade tests, have
bheir initial pay fixed according to skill. Complaints are made that there
are $00 many grades, that men gre blocked for years in lower grades until
vacancies occur in the higher, and that the wages of railway workers gre
not based on the principle of g living wage.
Revisions of Wages.
We have been supplied with statements regarding revisions of
wages made during the war and Post-war years to meet the changes in
the cost of living. War allowances were given on various railways from
1917 ‘and increased from time to time, until they were merged in genera]
revisions of the scale of pay carried out between the years 1920 and 1922,
We are formed by the Railway Board that the scheme of revision was
framed with due regard to the increased cost of living in the various provinees
 traversed by the several railways and that, as the lower paid employees
 were Particularly affected by the increase in the cost of the
necessaries of life, the Percentages were fixed on a sliding scale, giving
much larger proportionate Increasesin the lower grades. The following
table indicates the percentages of increase over 1914 scales of pay,
3