Premium
Trends in real wages during the industrial revolution: a view from across the Irish Sea
Author(s) -
GEARY FRANK,
STARK TOM
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
the economic history review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.014
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1468-0289
pISSN - 0013-0117
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0289.2004.00281.x
Subject(s) - famine , real wages , economics , irish , index (typography) , wage , labour economics , falling (accident) , power (physics) , geography , medicine , linguistics , philosophy , physics , environmental health , archaeology , quantum mechanics , world wide web , computer science
This article calculates cost of living indices for Ireland between 1785 and 1870 and real wage indices for agricultural labourers, textile workers, and building workers. These indices show gains in real wages which are not consistent with current hypotheses about widespread pre‐Famine immiseration, though textile workers did experience a reduction in earning power. Before the Famine, wages proved sticky downwards in the face of falling prices; after the Famine, money wages rose faster than prices. A revised UK index suggests that real wages began their increase earlier, in the 1820s, and increased by around an additional 10 percentage points by 1870.