Wages : short indicators and elaborate observations by Bernard GRAIS Wages statistical observation is traditionally of old standing. Some series, limited to peculiar sectors or professions, go back to more than a century : to 1806 for some trades such as carpenter, iron-smith, lace manufacturing,...), followed up by an enquiry carried out near Conseils des Prud'hommes (Conciliation Board) until 1950; to 1844 for miners' daily earnings; to 1920 for wages in Parisian iron and steel metallurgy. The leading tools of the actual observation system are themselves fairly ancient. Leading instrument of the present feature, the quarterly enquiry of Ministry of Labour was set up in 1946. Another leading element of the system consists in the collation ...