asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce whether an index of wage movements in industry, agriculture and commerce is compiled by the Department of Industry and Commerce, and, if so, whether he will state the movements of wages in each of the years from 1920 to 1933, inclusive.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Index of Wage Movements.
Only an index number of wage movements in certain occupations in agriculture is compiled for the Saorstát. I will have inserted in the Official Report a table showing this index.
The following table contains the only available index numbers of the average rates of cash wages per week of permanent male agricultural labourers who were stated not to have had free house or allowance of any kind. There are two series of figures, one from 1920 to 1929, the other from 1925 to 1933. These series are not quite comparable either as regards period of time or type of labour to which the index number refers.
|
Year |
Index Numbers of General Weekly rates of cash wages in each year |
Index Numbers of average rates of cash wages in a week in July of each year |
||
|
Ploughmen over 20 years |
Cattlemen over 20 years |
Ordinary Agricultural Labourers over 20 years |
Agricultural Labourers. unspecified, over 21 years |
|
|
Base 1925=100 |
||||
|
1920 |
130.6 |
129.6 |
130.7 |
|
|
1921 |
124.3 |
125.0 |
125.7 |
Not |
|
1922 |
111.7 |
110.2 |
111.9 |
available |
|
1923 |
111.7 |
111.1 |
112.9 |
|
|
1924 |
104.5 |
103.7 |
104.0 |
|
|
1925 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
|
1926 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
99.0 |
97.2 |
|
1927 |
94.6 |
94.4 |
93.1 |
97.2 |
|
1928 |
94.6 |
93.5 |
93.1 |
94.1 |
|
1929 |
92.8 |
91.7 |
93.1 |
95.2 |
|
1930 |
93.3 |
|||
|
1931 |
92.4 |
|||
|
1932 |
Not available |
89.5 |
||
|
1933 |
84.7 |