+-----------------+-------------+-----------+-----------+ |Income of Library|Librarians in| Senior | Junior | | Authority. | Charge. |Assistants.|Assistants.| +-----------------+-------------+-----------+-----------+ | £ | £ | £ | £ | | 500- 1,000 | 73-100 | 46- 80 | 19-52 | | 1,000- 1,500 | 54- 65 | 58- 90 | 19-52 | | 1,500- 2,000 | 84-120 | 77-125 | 24-65 | | 2,000- 3,000 | 78-180 | 84- 95 | 20-60 | | 3,000- 4,000 | 122-250 | 65-100 | 26-80 | | 4,000- 5,000 | 107-160 | 90-130 | 26-65 | | 5,000-10,000 | 148-225 | 100-170 | 29-78 | | 10,000 and over | 95-160 | 108-170 | 26-56 | +-----------------+-------------+-----------+-----------+ FIG. 8.--Salaries paid in 1911. It will be seen that these “actual” figures are full of anomalies and divergences, and the inadequacy of payment they reveal is in some grades positively remarkable. The European War has produced conditions under which it is impossible for many of these payments to sustain life, and the case for better payment is an imperative one. At the same time the argument is not for increased salaries out of _present_ library means, but for increased library means wherewith to pay increased salaries. Any other course, in present circumstances, would lead many libraries into bankruptcy. Salaries are subject to deduction, in the case of assistants earning less than £250 per annum, for National Health Insurance; and in some towns having superannuation schemes, contributions, amounting on the average to 2½ per cent., are exacted for that purpose. The following salary scale for junior and senior assistants has been used in smaller libraries whose incomes exceed £1000:-- Juniors--1st year £26 0 0 2nd „ 31 4 0 3rd „ 36 8 0 4th „ 41 12 0 Seniors--1st „ 52 0 0 2nd „ 62 0 0 3rd „ 72 0 0 4th „ 82 0 0 5th „ 92 0 0 6th „ 104 0 0 (Thus, an assistant must, as a rule, wait ten years in order to earn two pounds a week!) All salaries, whether paid monthly or weekly, should not be subject to any deduction on account of absences from illness (except in so far as the matter is governed by National Health Insurance rules), holidays, or other causes. The annual increases should only be granted provided the report of the chief librarian is satisfactory. No assistant should be allowed to hold the view that increases in salary are automatic and not dependent upon satisfactory service. It is a good plan to arrange for the whole of the staff increases to become due at the same date, so that they can all be considered at one meeting of the committee.