Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 265, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 November 1913 — WAGES ON RUSSIAN FARMS. [ARTICLE]

WAGES ON RUSSIAN FARMS.

Agricultural Laborer Receives Only $32 a Year and Subsistence. The extreme poverty and the low standard of living of peasants from whom the agricultural laborers are recruited assure a low level of wages for agricultural labor. The average wages will appear almost incredibly low from an American point of view,, notwithstanding the general complaints of the estate holders concerning the unreasonable demands of the laborers. According to an official investigation, embracing the decade of 18821891, the average annual wages for a male agricultural worker In Russia were less than $32 and for a female worker less than $lB. To this must be added the cost of subsistence, which is equally low, being on an average cost of employing a laborer for the entire year is equal to only $5 for the male and S4O for the female. The wages for the summer season of five months are almost equal to the annual wages, being $22 for the male and sl3 for the female laborer.