Cost of living in German towns

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 866449027

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-93831

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Cost of living in German towns

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: Stat. Off.

Year of publication:: 1908

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (LXI, 548 Seiten)

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

84 BOCHUM. The chemical industry is confined to the production of goods intended for manufacturing purposes, and comprises only a few works of small extent. The wages of the more skilled men range from 245. to 27s. 8d., and those of labourers from 195. 2d. to 235. The Cement Syndicate of Rhenish Westphalia, which has a yearly sale of nearly 4,000,000 barrels of 374 lb. each, has its seat at Bochum, but the industry is not peculiar to the town. Beer brewing is an important industry in the town and district, Bochum itself having six breweries employing some 350 men. In addition to their wages the men have beer rations varying from 3 to 5 litres (5J to 8J pints) daily. The beer is reckoned at 15 plennige per litre (about Id. per pint) though the retail price is from 25 to 30 plennige, but it is unusual to make a money payment when it is not drunk, nor may it be taken away, as is the case in some towns. Formerly, all unmarried brewers lived on the premises, beds being provided for them, while they bought their own food and cooked it in the common kitchen. The custom was abolished in most breweries at the men’s request, and an allowance of 155. per month was made instead. Now the men live less economically and many of them would gladly return to the old arrangement, but the employers, having adapted themselves to the altered conditions, are unwilling to reintroduce the living-in system. The hours in this trade are 10 daily ; the notice on either side is usually 14 days in the case of married men, but in the case of unmarried men some firms only give and require 18 hours’ notice. In the building trades a number of wages agreements are already in force, and the tendency is to regulate the conditions of labour in these trades more and more by this method. The duration of work in summer is 10 hours daily, the term of notice is variously a week or a fortnight, and wages are paid every two weeks. Wages in these trades range in general from 27s. to 305. 7d. for skilled men, the lower rate falling to stonemasons, joiners, cabinet-makers, plumbers and fitters, and the higher rate to masons and bricklayers and carpenters, but outside these rates are painters at one extreme with 2os. 10d. and stucco workers at the other with 365. Bricklayers’ and masons’ labourers receive 24s. 7d. Few women or girls are employed in the staple industries of Bochum, in any capacity whatever, and in general female labour plays there a very insignificant part in industrial organisation. As a rule the wages of municipal employees increase with the years of service, a fact which will explain the wide range shown in some cases. The hours of labour vary from 63 to 72. TFuyga nW T/m/ra q/ Aoòowr m /Ae PrzW/W Oœwpa&'fms, Oc&Agr, 1905. Weekly Wages. Weekly Hours of Labour. Building Trades* :— Masons and Bricklayers Stonemasons Carpenters Joiners and Cabinetmakers ... Plumbers Stucco-workers Painters Bricklayers’ and Masons’ Labourers 30s. Id. 27 s. 30s. Id. 27s. 27 s. 36s. 25s. 10(7. 24s. 7(7. 59 54 59 60 60 60 60 60 Engineering Trades :— Moulders Fitters . . Turners ... Smiths Pattern-makers... Labourers 30s. to 32s. 29s. & 30s. 29s. & 30s. 29s. to 31s. 28s. 6(7. 21s. 60 60 60 60 60 60 * The wages and hours of labour stated for summer. the building trades are for a full week in

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: Cost of living in German towns

Monograph

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation