1 The payment of a wage rate above the minimum is not the sole form of differential compensation. Often the better men receive the same hourly rate but are given more regular employment, the cleanest and most desirable work, and even overtime payment for merely nominal work. Because of such considerations workmen in the building trades will often remain with an employer at the minimum rate when other employers are offering two or three cents an hour more.

of regular employment.1 'A few branches of the Granite Cutters have provisions in their agreements to the effect that if an employer advertises for men at more than the minimum rate he shall pay the higher rate to all in his employ.

The union minimum is sometimes fixed for other reasons below the wage rates of most of the men to whom it applies. The rate may be kept low in order to permit men to secure employment who would not be able to do so if the predominant wage were taken as the minimum. This policy has been followed in some cities by the local unions of masons in the Bricklavers' and Masons' Union. Local unions of the Ma-chinists, too, occasionally set a low minimum rate rather than a starting rate and a higher regular minimum. Again, a group of workers who usually command a higher rate of pay than other journeymen in the trade may not be given a separate union rate. An instance in point is that of cabinet makers or "bench men" in the Carpenter's Union who are given the same minimum rate as machine wood workers.

Proportion of workers getting more than minimum wage. The extent to which differential wages are paid above the union minimum, when that rate is the rate actually paid to the men whose efficiency is about the average, varies widely in different trades. There are trades in which differential payments of this character are very exceptional. Unskilled laborers, such as the ordinary building laborers, are commonly paid one flat rate whether organized or not. The same is largely true of men paid by the day or hour in street railway or railroad service. In union agreements with the street railway companies, the minimum rate is usually the same for all after the first year of service, and the companies almost without exception make this the actual rate. Men in the railroad yard service are paid by the hour and yard engineers,

1 Annual Reports, 1906, p. 299. Members may not strike for more than the minimum rate. But men may strike to enforce payment of more than the minimum from a contractor who has agreed to pay more and later refuses (Ibid., p. 28). 15 firemen, conductors, and trainmen practically all receive the minimum rates set for their respective classes. Men employed in railroad shops rarely receive more than the minimum rates, although in these same trades in the contract shops a considerable part of the men receive wages above the minimum. Standardization of workmen and of work and the practice of dealing with large bodies of men as classes tend to standardize the wages paid in the railway service more than in trades calling for similar grades of skill in other industries.1

In the building trades, the higher rates in the large cities tend to attract the better men and keep out the poorer and this tends to reduce the variations in competency from the average. The employment of men in larger numbers and the more frequent changing of the men, together with the existence of employers' associations for dealing with the unions, also make for greater uniformity in actual payment in the large cities than in the smaller places.2 Wages among the Stone Cutters and the Granite Cutters seem to conform more closely to the minimum than in the other building trades. The reason for this in the case of the Stone Cutters has been indicated.

In the printing trades, particularly among the compositors and the stereotypers and electrotypers,3 and in the metal

1 The tendency toward uniform rates for men engaged in the same kind of work is stronger in large establishments than in small establishments for the same reasons.

2 It is difficult to get anything more than estimates of the percentage of men receiving wages above the minimum. The secretary of the Composition Roofers estimates that not more than two per cent of the members in New York City receive more than the minimum. An official of the Steam Fitters estimates that for his union in New York City the proportion is not less than five nor more than ten per cent.

3 An officer of the local union of the Stereotypers' and Electrotypers' Union estimates that about 50 out of 650 members in New York City receive more than the minimum. The electrotype finishers, but not the electrotype founders, are included in the organization there. In Boston where both branches are included, the secretary estimates that forty per cent receive more than the minimum.

trades the proportion of workmen receiving more than the minimum is larger than in the building trades. The diversified nature of the work included within the trade and the consequent differences in experience and skill among the membership, combined with the absence of graded union rates, account largely for the prevalence of differential payments among the Molders and Machinists.1

1 A national official of the Holders' Union estimates that at least thirty per cent of the members receive more than the minimum. This is the highest estimate obtained for any union. In the Iron Molders' Journal for September, 1900 (p. 532), a correspondent declares that there is not a foundry in the country in which some men do not get more than the minimum. In the number for March, 1900 (p. 147), it was reported that in Milwaukee where the minimum was $2.75 "some of our best men get $3.50."