py THE INCOME OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORKER. 197 position not later than a year ago. Indeed, many of our facts relate to parlier dates. IT. Earnings of Cotton Mill Operatives. We now endeavour to set down a fow statements regarding the general wage levels in some of the leading branches of industry. In the cotton textile mills, over two-thirds of the operatives of British India are employed in the Bombay Presidency, and, as we have stated, there is here a large amount of detailed statistical information available. The three important centres in this Presidency are Bombay, Ahmedabad and Sholapur. . The first wages investigation made by the Bombay Labour Office related to May 1914 and May 1921, the second to August 1923, and the third to May 1926 in the case of Ahmedabad and to July 1926 in the case of Bombay and Sholapur. These last figures were pub- ished in 1930, and no later statistics are available. We therefore con- fine our attention to the last enquiry which was based on the actual muster rolls of selected mills in each of the three centres. A feature of import- ance here is, to quote the Labour Office, the “very wide variations which exist both in the methods of payment and the manner in which the rates are fixed not only as between centre and centre but also as between anit and unit in a particular centre *. In Bombay the average earnings of the two-loom weavers in 19 selected mills varied between Rs. 1-9-1 and Rs. 2-1-6 per day. In Ahmedabad the variations were even wider. The average daily earnings for men according to this enquiry were Rs. 1-8-0 In Bombay, Rs. 1-6-8 in Ahmedabad and Rs. 1-0-5 in Sholapur. For women the respective figures were Re. 0-11-11, Re. 0-12-6 and Re. 0-6-8. In the selected mills in Bombay, no children were employed ; for Ahmed- abad and Sholapur their average daily earnings were Re. 0-5-6 and Re. 0-4-0 respectively. In every centre absenteeism is a factor of some importance, and In the table below we give the average monthly earnings of all operatives so far ag they are available, and the percentage and average earnings of operatives who worked without any absence '— Group. Men .. Women . Children ., Centre. Bombay . Ahmedabad oe Sholapur .. Bombay Ahmedabad Sholapur Ahmedabad ot Sholapur . Average monthly earnings of all workers. Rs. a. ». 37 10 2 23 is 6 17 12 4 9 15 7 x "10 4 Workers who worked without any absence. o/o age, Average monthly earnings, Rs. A. 53 56 31 4 3 6 38 4 0 26 10 ¢ 33 58 25 70 8 20 4 6 21 1 6 11 6 7 | 9 4 6 6 13 10