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

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CHEMNITZ. 140 As regards the number employed in the building trades, no statistics of in the succeeding ten years, judging by the growth of the population, which has risen from 159,000 in 1895 to 244,000 in 1905. Assuming a corresponding expansion in che building trades, the number of workpeople employed in them would be little short of 8,000 in 1905. The number of persons working directly or indirectly for Chemnitz firms, but residing outside, cannot, of course, be stated even approximately, but is undoubtedly very large. Numbers of women from the surrounding towns and villages of the Erzgebirge may be seen at almost any hour of the day, with large baskets of hose slung knapsack-fashion over their shoulders, either going to, or coming from, some Chemnitz hosiery firm, from whom they receive regular employment in working ornamental designs in hand embroidery on the finer sorts of stockings and socks. Again, cartloads of hose made of Egyptian cotton in its natural colour are often to be seen entering Chemnitz from some outlying town, where the goods have been manufactured. These are on their way to some local dyeing mill, after leaving which they are exported as Chemnitz hosiery, mostly to the United States or South America. Indeed, it appears that the greater part of the hosiery exported from Chemnitz has been manufactured in some other town in the Erzgebirge, and this applies in a greater or less degree to many other articles supplied by Chemnitz firms. The town, therefore, is of great importance not only as a manufacturing but also as a distributing centre. Except for the inferior grades of unskilled labour, the piece-wage system is practically universal in all the greater industries of Chemnitz, so that in determining rates of wages it has been necessary in almost every case to ascertain from the factory pay-sheets the amount most frequently earned by an adult wage system is more generally in operation, very few wages and hours agreements have as yet been concluded, so that there is some, though not very much, variation in the conditions of labour among the many small enterprises engaged in those trades. This scarcity of wages agreements, in a town where labour is strongly organised, is noteworthy and difficult to explain. Indeed, the only trades in which the conditions of labour are regulated by agreements in Chemnitz are those of the brewers, printers, carpenters, joiners, painters, cabinetmakers, turners (wood), and coppersmiths. Returns of the predominant wages and hours of labour have been obtained from 35 of the principal employers of labour, including the municipality, which owns the gas works, the electric light and power supply, and the water works. In addition to these a return was obtained from the Metalworkers’ Federation with regard to the wages and hours of labour of a large number of its members working for a great machine-making concern, whose officials declined to furnish any information on the subject. The following table of predominant wages and hours of labour is based on these returns :— Wages and Hours of Labour in the Principal Occupations, October, 1905. * The wa 2 es and hours of labour stated for the building trades are for a full week in more recent date than those of the occupation census of 1895 are available. The number was then ascertained to be 5,073, but must have increased considerably workman in a full week without overtime. On the other hand, in the minor industries, such as the various branches of the building trades, where the time- Weekly Wages. Weekly Hours of Labour. Building Trades* .-— Bricklayers and Masons Carpenters Joiners ... Painters ... 64 57 52 54 64 Stonemasons Stucco workers Labourers summer

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