International labour unions continued to fight against employers who were determined to lower wages, but they were only effective on behalf of skilled workers. Wages and salaries reached their peak in terms of real income in the late 1920's. Prices were remarkably stable from 1921 to 1929 and some gains were made by wage earners. However, as the graph shows, the average incomes of adult male workers in occupational categories, (more than two-thirds of the labour force) were well below the Canadian Department of Labour's estimate of the earnings required to support a family of five at a reasonable expenditure level which was $30.00 per week in 1929.
Courtesy: Terry Copp, The Anatomy of Poverty: The Condition of the Working Class in Montreal, 1897-1929, Chapter II, (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1974)
