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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258 HAMBURG. Asa result of an investigation of incomes made by the Hamburg taxation authorities several years ago, the conclusion was drawn that “ the majority of the population depend on incomes of from £50 to £60 per annum at the most.” Such incomes represent daily earnings of from 3s. 6d. to 4s., the range within which the wages of most unskilled factory and workshop labourers fall. Outside this range fall the great mass of skilled workmen on the one hand and at the other end of the scale the casual labourer whose pay is more or less rigidly regulated by the law of supply and demand. It may be noted that the “ locally usual ” rates of pay for day labour as determined for State insurance calculations are 3s. bd. for adult males (increased from 3s. in 1907), 2s. for adult females, Is. Qd. for juvenile males and Is. for juvenile females. The rate of 3s. bd. for men compares with 3s. 2^<A in Bremen, though until two years ago the Bremen “ official ” rate for adult male labour was 6d. higher than that of Hamburg. Many of the larger employers both in Hamburg and Altona maintain either wholly or partially special benefit funds which supplement the State insurance funds against sickness, accident, and old age and invalidity. Other firms have instituted holiday and pleasure funds, to which the workpeople contribute, and the proceeds of which are expended in summer on excursions, festivals, and other recreations. A number of smaller employers give their workpeople several days holiday yearly, paying their wages meantime, and in one case double wages are paid to men who spend their holiday in the country. As an illustration of care for the physical welfare of workpeople, the following extract from the factory regulations of a large indiarubber company may be quoted :—“ Workers under 18 years of age are required to take part in gymnastic exercises twice a week : in the gymnasium the orders of the teacher or his representative must be obeyed on pain of fine.” The following appears in the regulations of an important engineering firm and relates specially to painters and varnishers :— “ The workmen may only take food and drink or leave the works after they have changed their working attire and carefully washed their hands.” The factory canteen is also a recognised institution in some factories at a distance from the town. Here a wholesome dinner, consisting of soup, meat and vegetables, can as a rule be had for 4d., hot coffee or tea is sold at a nominal charge, and beer at cost price. In few cases do employers whose works are outside the town provide dwellings, experience having shown that such dwellings are unpopular and that the workpeople prefer to make their own arrangements and above all to live in the town. The State and municipal authorities of Hamburg control all the services generally found in public hands in German towns with the exception of the tramways. They also own and administer a large system of harbours and docks, with the result that the town is by far the greatest employer of labour. Wages as a rule are dependent upon years of service as well as capacity. The employees of the State are insured against old age and invalidity under specially favourable conditions securing them higher pensions than are contemplated by the Imperial Insurance Law. The weekly contribution is 15 pfennige or l’8rf. per week, and the pension is £10 after five years’ service with 20 pfennige (2*4d.) extra for every further week of contribution up to 1,000 weeks, and 10 pfennige (l*2c?.) extra for the next 520 weeks, when the maximum pension is reached. The effect is that after about ten years’ service a pension of £22 12s. is claimable. Subject to conditions premiums are wholly or partially returnable in the event of a right to pension not maturing. From the beginning of 1908 workpeople in the employment of the State will also have a conditional right to several days’ holiday once a year, viz., to three days if they have served three years unintermittently, and six days if they have similarly served six years. Housing and Rents. The working-class dwellings of Hamburg present all the diversity of character and quality which is invariably found in old towns, but the contrasts are here accentuated owing to the facts that Hamburg was of old fortified and that it contains a large seafaring and harbour population. The worst housing conditions exist in the Inner Town and in the neighbourhood of the harbour, and it is here that the labouring classes most directly dependent upon

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