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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332 MANNHEIM. In the soap and oil industry the rate of pay for unskilled labour is from 19s. 10c/. to 22s. 10d. Polishers and inlayers in the plate glass trade earn 25s. 2d., but they also live rent free. In this industry, as in others, there has been a steady advance in wages during late years, as the following table shows : — Weekly Bates of Wages in the Plate Glass Trade. 1896. 1870. 1888. 1906. Polishers, &c. ... Unskilled labourers s. d. 18 0 12 0 s. d. 20 5 12 0 s. d. 22 10 15 8 s. d. 25 2 20 5 The rate of pay for outdoor labour ranges from os. to 4s. per day. The municipal authority pays for such labour a standard rate of 21s. 7d. per week, which is somewhat above the rate paid to the lower grades of workers in industries which depend predominantly on unskilled labour. It may be noted that the wages of agricultural labour in the district around Mannheim are os. 4c/. per day in summer and 2s. Sd. in winter without food, and 2s. 6c/. and Is. lie/, respectively with food. Mannheim is an important centre of the tobacco and cigar industry, of which the Grand Duchy of Baden is peculiarly the home in Germany, since it both grows the tobacco plant in large quantities and manufactures the leaf in a multitude of towns and villages. In 1905 the cigar industry employed 16'9 per cent, of all the workpeople in Baden who were engaged in factories and workshops (in absolute figures 35,290 out of 208,993), as well as a considerable number of home workers. Mannheim itself has 41 tobacco factories which employed in October, 1905, 203 male and 820 female work people, 242 of the latter being married. In the main, only the work of packing, sorting, and forwarding—together with a certain amount of manufacture for samples and for immediate local use—is done in town, however, and the real work of cigar making, in all its various processes, is a rural industry. The reason for this is that only in the country is a sufficiency of labour procurable at a low rate of pay. The work is as a rule piece work, and the earnings depend upon individual skill and celerity and also upon the quality of the cigars made. In town cutters can earn 20s. 4d. per week, sorters and packers from 14s. 5d. to 18s., and in the village factories male cigar makers earn from 12s. to 18s. 6c/. on piece, working 60 hours a week, and females 8s. to 12s 6c/. In the country whole families often work together, both in the factory and at home. The father may make the wrapper, his wife and girls do the rolling, and by thus co-operating as much as 30s. may be earned. As, however, work is in many cases intermittent and is made to fit in with household and other duties, earnings are very irregular. An enumeration made in 1905 by the Baden Factory Inspectors of the wages paid in eleven large cigar manufactories, employing 3,741 workpeople (32 58 per cent, males and 67*42 per cent, females), showed weekly earnings as follows (the figures are given for 1897 for purpose of comparison) :— Year. Percentage of the whole whose earnings were as under. 5s. but not over 105. Over 105. but not over 125. Over 125. but not over 155. Over 1Õ5. but not over 185. Over 185. but not over 215. Over 215. 1905 ... 1897 ... 61-65 64-0 16-65 21-66 15-50 11*28 414 179 104 0 67 1*02 0-60

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