Chapter XXVII: Section CLXX: Rate of Wages.--Influence of Custom

Custom always exerts a great influence where there is question of choosing an avocation with the intention of devoting one's self to it entirely and exclusively. There is a public opinion which fixes the gradation of the different classes of labor and their appropriate reward, which is slow to change, and which both determines, and is determined by the relation of supply and demand. There is an equilibrium between the pleasantness of work and the rate of wages only in the case of such kinds of labor as are on the same social footing. It frequently happens, however, that the most repulsive work has to be performed by those who are forced to accept any pay and to be satisfied with it.[170-1] There are many branches of labor those engaged in which still form a kind of exclusive caste; and the pay of the higher branches is maintained at a high rate, especially by the fact that the members of the castes to which they belong are provident in their marriages. The lower classes are not in a condition to meet the preparation necessary to engage in such professions, even if they were certain of being afterwards reimbursed with interest for the outlay.[170-2] One of the chief causes of the lowness of wages paid to women is, that so few branches of labor are traditionally open to them, that the few that are, are intended to supply luxuries, and are, besides, for the most part, over-crowded. The distribution of the aggregate wages earned by any industry, among the higher and lower classes of workmen who coöperate in it, depends very largely on their social position relatively to one another.[170-3] [170-4] Here political forms and changes may exert the greatest influence.[170-5]

Thus, the artificial increase of the wages of masters effected by the former guild-system was produced, to say the least, as much at the cost of the journeymen and apprentices as of the public. And if, on the other hand, it cannot be said that the most recent marked rise in wages, in so many countries, is merely the consequence of the extension of the parliamentary right of suffrage, certain it is that the two phenomena are very closely related, and that both are at once the effect and the cause of the intensified feeling of individuality and of the consciousness of constituting a class in the community of the lower strata of society.

[Footnote 170-1: At least where the supply of labor in
general surpasses the demand. Compare _J. S. Mill_,
Principles, II, ch. 14, 3d ed. The dangerous industries in
which lead, quicksilver, arsenic, etc. are manipulated or
employed, should be and can be better paid than they
actually are. In the Bavarian Palatinate, stone-cutters
rarely reach their 45th year; and yet their wages are very
low, because of the comparative over-population of the
country. (_Rau_, _Haussen's_ Archiv., N. T. X., 228.) But
the lowness of wages here is certainly and mainly caused by
the little thought the workmen themselves give to
considerations of health.]

[Footnote 170-2: The lower the rate of wages of any class
sinks, the more difficult it becomes for parents to devote
their children to another career.]

[Footnote 170-3: In Paris, 24,463 workmen with less than 3
francs daily; 157,216, with from 3 to 5; 10,393, with from 5
to 20 and even 3 to 5 francs. It is remarkable, however, how
uniform the average wages in the different trades is:
_vêtements_, 3.33 francs; _fils et tissus_, 3.42;
_boisellerie_, _vannerie_, 3.44; _garçons boulangers_,
_bouchers_ 3.50; _arts chimiques et céramiques_ 3.71;
_bâtiments_, 3.81; _carosserie_, 3.86; _peaux et cuirs_,
3.87; _ameublement_, 3.90; _articles de Paris_, 3.94;
_métaux communs,_ 3.98; _métaux précieux_, 4.17;
_imprimerie_, 4.18. (Journal des Economistes, Janv. 1853,
111.)]

[Footnote 170-4: How the Roman advocates were given to all
sorts of ostentation, and even borrowed costly rings in
order to raise their _honoraria_, see _Juvenal_, VII, 105,
ff.]

[Footnote 170-5: The salaries paid to the employees in the
office of the minister of finance in France and the United
States were as follows: to the porter, 1,500 and 3,734
francs; the lowest clerk, 1,000 to 1,800, and 5,420 francs;
to the head clerk, 3,200 to 3,600, and 8,672 francs; the
secretary general, 20,000 and 10,840 francs; to the
minister, 80,000 and 32,520 francs. (_Tocqueville_,
Démocratie aux États-Unis, II, 74.) In the treasury
department, at Washington, of 158 employees, only 6 received
less than $1,000 salary, but only 2 over $2,000. (_M.
Chevalier_, Lettres sur l'Amérique du Nord, II, 151, 456.)
Compare _Büsch_, Geldumlauf, IV, 34. In Russia, the wages of
the higher classes of laborers as compared with those paid
the commoner class is much higher than in Germany.
(_Kosegarten_, in _Haxthausen_, Studien, III, 583.) On the
other hand, in England, since 1850, the rate of wages for
unskilled labor has risen relatively more than any other.
(_Tooke_, Hist. of Prices, VI, 177.)]