As a quarter contains 13 weeks, the number of working days, excluding Sundays and holidays, is usually 77. About 68 per cent of the men make full-time or overtime.

Of the 245,220 men employed in the third quarter of 1901, 27,964 or 11.4 per cent worked 90 days or over. These are nearly all engaged in transport services,-railroad and street railway employees, cab drivers, seamen, post-office clerks, etc., who work seven days in the week. Hence the highest average of days worked is found in the transportation group (IV), namely, 79. This is one of the reasons also why the average for women is nearly always smaller than that for men; practically none of the female unionists having to work seven days a week.

For the sake of comparing the amount of employment in different periods, the average number of days worked in each quarter is used. This average is obtained by finding the total number of days worked by all the members of each union, adding these aggregates and dividing the total sum by the number of members employed. Thus it is found that the 258,807 members of labor unions reported at work in the third quarter of 1901 altogether accomplished 18,125,904 days' work within that quarter, or an average of 70 days each. The comparison with preceding quarters is as follows:

TABLE 18.

AVERAGE NUMBER OF DAYS WORKED BY MEMBERS OF LABOR UNIONS.

First Second Third Fourth First Second Third Fourth quarter. quarter. quarter. quarter. quarter. quarter. quarter. quarter.

The number of days worked in the second and fourth quarters

of 1900 and 1901 was not ascertained.

As regards the organized working women, it appears that 1901 did not afford especially good opportunities of employment; the average number of days worked, while somewhat above that in 1898, was just equal to the number in 1897 and below the number in 1899 and 1900-particularly 1899. The female members

of labor organizations are comparatively few in number and are confined for the most part to the clothing and tobacco trades, in both of which employment fluctuates to an unusual degree.

Confining attention to the men, we observe that the duration of employment has on the whole been increasing since 1897. In the first quarter the best showing is made in 1901, but for the third quarter 1901 is not quite equal to 1899. The explanation of the fluctuations depends somewhat upon the figures for the several industries given below:

TABLE 19.

AVERAGE NUMBER OF DAYS EMPLOYED (MEN ONLY) IN THE THIRD Quarter of 1899, 1900 AND 1901.

With only two exceptions (wood working, public employment), all the groups exhibit a higher average number of days worked in the third quarter of 1901 than in 1900; but with respect to 1899 the superiority is not so marked, as one-half the groups. have the higher average in 1899 and one-half in 1901. The most noticeable difference is in the clothing and textile trades, the members of which averaged 68 days of employment in July, August and September, 1899, as compared with 56 days in those months of 1901. On the other hand, the members of organizations in the transport trades averaged 79 days in the present quarter and only 76 in 1899; in theatrical and musical trades 72 days this year and 60 in 1899; restaurant and retail trade, 79 and 72 respectively, etc.

The smaller cities and towns, as usual, furnished more days of work, per member, than the metropolis.

IV. Earnings.

[Summary tables P-S, detailed tables IX-XI.]

DAILY WAGES.

In Table X of Appendix IV will be found the rates of wages and average daily earnings in each labor organization in the state. As compared with last year the wage rates herein reported show many advances and few reductions. About onefifth of the members of New York labor unions had their wages changed this year and 95 per cent of the changes were advances. The average weekly gain of the 47,585 unionists who received an increase was $1.97, while the average weekly loss of 2,668 persons who suffered a decline in wages was $2.67. The net weekly gain to the 50,253 wageworkers was $1.73.

More than four-fifths of all the changes in wages were reported by the members of unions in the building and clothing trades, as appears in the following summary table:

TABLE 20.

CHANGES IN WAGES REPORTED BY MEMBERS OF LABOR UNIONS, 1 OCT., 1900-30 SEPT, 1901.

The net weekly increases amount in the aggregate to $86,807, distributed among 50,253 working people, and of this amount $75,900 is to be credited to the two groups of trades just speci

fied (building and clothing). The largest per capita weekly gain ($3.01) is found among the employees of public authorities (Group XI), and is chiefly due to a gain of $3.71 per week among the New York City dock builders. The smallest net weekly gain is found among the hotel and restaurant workers (Group X); while 160 waiters and waitresses in Buffalo gained an average of 79 cents weekly, 18 bartenders in Hornellsville lost $4 each per week.

The reduction that affected the largest number was among the 700 male and 800 female waist-makers (Group II) of New York City, whose piece rates were reduced 50 per cent. These were the only women reported who suffered a cut in wages.

The trade most generally benefited was that of bricklayers and masons, of whom 6,671 secured an advance that averaged $2.20 a week. The majority of them were in New York City, where the rate was advanced in June, 1901, from 55 to 60 cents an hour.

New York City naturally claims the bulk of the increases. The average weekly gain there was $2.11 among the unions reporting increases and the net gain, after deducting the losses, was $1.87 per week.

New York's increases were almost entirely in the building and clothing trades; Buffalo's were in the building, transport (railroad), and (machine) wood working trades; in the Albany-Troy district, street railway employment and machinist's trade; in Rochester, the various building trades, and in Syracuse the few changes were scattered.

*Including Albany, Troy-Lansingburg, Rensselaer-Bath, Green Island, Watervliet, Cohoes and Schenectady.

It is interesting to note that three-fourths of the agreements in which these changes were embodied were made without recourse to strike or lockout; although the number of members affected in this case was only one-third of the total.

It is particularly in the building trades that we find these changes in wages made without the interruption to work known as a strike or lockout, while in the clothing trade the opposite condition prevails and few changes were made without involving the stoppage of work.

It also appears from the preceding table that with the exception of one glass-workers' union, all the unions that arranged changes in the rates of wages through trade boards or joint committees of employers and employed belonged to the building trades. While in other cases the contracts or agreements were made by the workmen immediately concerned or by their union officers or committees, some of the building trades organizations have progressed beyond such temporary expedients for bargaining and have created, in union with the employers, joint committees or trade boards, of a more or less permanent nature. Agreements arrived at through such boards are, in the table