Page 78 - clra62_0019-(GIPE)

72 ECONOMIC INQUIRIES AND STUDIES
whole is higher because of the different distribution of
the people among the grades:
Second Community.
Class. Per Annum. Nos. Total.
A. Earnings £40 100 £4,000
B. 50 100 5,000
c. " 60 100 6,000
D. " 7 0 200 14,000
E. " 80 00 4 0 ,000.
" 5
Total 1,000 £69,000
...........
Average per head, £69.
In a comparison of rates of wages merely according
to the nature of the employment, the wages in the first
community would obviously appear higher than in the
second, and this would be strictly true in a sense: but
the inference would be untrue that the average earnings
of the wages-earning classes in the first community,
striking a true average, would be higher.
The principle of this theoretical comparison, I believe,
helps to explain the actual facts as between an agri-
cultural new country like the United States or Austral-
asia and an old_ country like England. In the former
agricultural wages are higher than in England, and
almost every sort of employment, subject, however, to
some qualifications, such as length of day and continuity
of employment, is better paid than in England; but it
is a nOlt sequitur, not at first apparent, that the average
earnings all round are also higher, the truth being that
owing to the larger proportion of artisan classes in
England the average earnings of the working classes
may be as high or higher in England than in the United
States, or at, any· rate not very far short. The mode
of comparing wages in two countries is thus a most
critical question. I have been often puzzled myself to
explain how it is that we arrive in England at com-
paratively high figures for the aggregate income of the
nation when most of the rates of wages are apparently