204 CHAPTER XII. that the workers whose cases have been combined to furnish the statistics and who constitute a very small proportion of the industrial workers generally, constitute an entirely representative section. The most highly-paid industrial employees, who are engaged mainly in supervision, run less risk of accidents than others. At the other end of the scale, the unskilled worker runs less risk of a serious accident than the semi-skilled worker who is dealing with machine processes. Secondly, the Act, as we shall show later, is only gradually becoming known to the general mass of the workers, and it is probable that claims have been less frequent from the lower-paid workers and their dependants than from those who are in receipt of higher wages. But, in the main, these factors are common to all provinces. The Madras levels are somewhat higher than we would have expected, but otherwise the comparison between the major provinces afforded by the table is very closely related to that indicated by other evidence. Assam is omitted as the numbers are too small to yield any results of value. Wages are lowest in Madras, the Central Provinces and the United Provinces ; the provinces to the east of this group, namely, Bengal and Bihar and Orissa, have a higher level, and so have those to the west, namely, the Punjab and Bombay. Bombay comes first of the Indian pro- vinces, while Burma has a still higher level. For the reasons we have given, the table is much less reliable as a picture of wage-levels, but we consider that it gives a general impression of these levels for the semi-skilled opera- tives in organised industry. In this connection it should be remembered that, while children are excluded from the figures, they include both men and women and the workers on the lowest wages are, for the most part. women. Percentage of cases earning monthly wages of . Province. United Provinces . Madras .. ve .e Central Provinces ., a4 Bihar and Orissa oe vi Bengal Pr . ws Punjab po vw . Bombay .. . Burma X > 2g 35 53 a8 att 28 27 22 25 18 38 21 24 13 18 10 18 Bb mn LK 4 0 xX 8 3 3 1 16 19 | : 1 <8 26 | 19 10 AE gl wn = - m 8 0 5 z & 3 wn mw < mea - © = +» 0 ew 2 528 ; 8 8 Sail Eg 2 15 £ L 1° 8 15 10 10 7 23 13 16 27 16 15 i 2¢ 21 32 49 - - EP 23 °3 304 110 209 717 873 324 273 1R8 III. Family Income. Hitherto we have been referring to the earnings of individuals, but in respect of both income and expenditure itis the family and net the individual that is important in relation to the standard of living.