484
ZWICKAU.
Predominant Weekly
Wages.
Usual Weekly Hours
of Labour (exclusive of
Meal Times).
Engineering and Metal Working :—
( Machine Making
; Automobile Manufacture
1 Miners’ Safety Lamp Manufacture
'.Carriage and Van Works
I Machine Making
Automobile Manufacture
Carriage and Van Works
( Machine Making
( Automobile Manufacture
Í Machine Making
Automobile Manufacture
( Carriage and Van Works
Britannia Metal-ware Manufacture ...
{ Machine Making
Automobile Manufacture
Miners’ Safety Lamp Manufacture
Carriage and Van Works
Printing Trades :—
Hand Compositors, Machine Minders and
Pressmen.
Fitters
Turners
Patternmakers
Smiths ...
Machine Compositors j j^^inf
20s. to 21s.
23s. 5d.
21 s.
20s.
22s.
28s.
26s.
21s. to 23s.
24s.
21s., 22s.
20s. 5d.
27s.
20s. to 24s.
16s. „ 18s.
16s.
15s. to 20s.
18s.
24s. 2d.
30s. 3d.
31s. 5d.
62-63
60
62
66
62-63
60
66
62-63
60
62-63
60
66
66-68
62-63
60
62
66
54
48
54
Pottery ware and Brickmaking
Hollowware Makers
Hollowware Makers (Assistants)
Throwers... ...
Drain-pipe Pressers
Putters-in and Takers-out
Clay pit Workers
Brick and Tile Makers ...
Earthenware Loaders ...
Labourers... ...
36s.
28s. 6d.
27s.
22s.
24s.
20s.
21s.
18s.
14s. 5d
60
Porcelain Making :—
Turners ...
Painters ...
Firemen
32s.
31s.
24s.
58-60
Sheet Glass Making :—
Blowers ...
Glassmakers
Labourers
... 44s. 6d. to 62s. 4d.
20s. „ 30s.
17s. „ 20s.
39
39
66
From the above it can be seen that wages are very low ; even for skilled
labour, wages of more than 30s. a week are quite exceptional and only to be
found among certain select groups of men whose occupations require exceptional
skill, combined, as a rule, with ability to bear severe physical strain, as for
instance, the leading men at the furnaces and converters in steel 'works and
rolling mills, the hollow-ware makers in pottery works, the turners in porcelain
making, and the blowers in glass works. In the staple industry of this place
—coal-mining—the best paid groups of pit labour—the hewers and timberers—
earn no more than £l in a full week of six shifts on the average. Among
fitters, turners, patternmakers and smiths in the engineering and cognate trades
the majority do not earn more than 235. Most of the skilled men in pottery
and porcelain making earn from 2Ls. to 27s., while in the printing trades
machine compositors on newspaper work may be regarded as highly paid with
305. 3d. for 48 hours.
Among unskilled labourers the best paid are those employed at the steel
works at 215. for a full week. Elsewhere the wages of unskilled labourers
in private enterprise range between 145. 5d. and 175.
Taking wages at Berlin as 100, the corresponding figures for Zwickau
are—for the building trades, 68 for skilled men and 66 for labourers ; for the
engineering trades, 65 for skilled men and 78 for labourers ; and for the
printing trades, 86.