ABSTRACT
The main sources of statistics on wages in the United States are the Census and the reports of the Bureaux of Labor Statistics. Above all, the task is to contrast suitably selected American data with equivalent data for Europe, and particularly for Germany, that are as comparable as possible. In the case of the American data they reflect the fact that several branches of industry correspond to each German industrial grouping, and different average wages apply to each branch. Data on average wages are given in the Census, the lame duck of official wage statistics. The official statistical data concerning wages of workers in the German mining industry have been derived by calculations similar to those used for the wage rates determined by the industrial associations that administer accident insurance. In 1902 the American worker employed in bituminous coal-mining earned $629 – with men's, women's and children's earnings calculated together.
