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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8 BERLIN. who play so important a part in the building trade owing to the custom of building in brick, faced and ornamented with stucco, cement, and the like. There is no uniformity in the duration of the Berlin workday. In -the engineering and electrical trades it is variously 9, 9^, and 10 hours, in the chemical industry 10, in the pianoforte and wood industries pre dominantly 9, and in the building trades the same, though the bricklayers and carpenters are agitating for an eight-hour day. Most factories and workshops work from (5 to 6 or 5.30, allowing, besides an hour or an hour and an half at noon, short intervals for breakfast and for coffee in the afternoon—the latter called " Vesper ”—but there is a disposition to abolish the afternoon break and cease work sooner instead. It is the almost universal rule in Berlin for employers and workpeople to be under no obligation to give notice. There are eight recognised public holidays, and of these the working classes have the full benefit, viz., New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Whit Monday, Ascension Day, the Prussian National Penance Day, and Christmas Day and the day following ; and a small section of the Social Democratic Trade Unionists insists on observing May Day in spite of the penal measures taken against absentees by the employers. The employees in several factory industries are pressing for the introduction of an eight hours day, yet though isolated firms have introduced it with satisfactory results, there is no likelihood of any widespread reduction of hours to this extent for a long time to come. Where the day has been reduced to eight hours there is only a single break at noon, the breakfast interval and the old-fashioned “ Vesper ” being abolished, and it is found that a considerable amount of time is saved by the abolition of stoppages. A leading engineering firm, employing several thousand men, resorted to an eight hours day in several departments as a temporary measure with a view to running double shifts, and the experiment succeeded so well that it is proposed to make the change permanent. On this subject the Berlin Chamber of Commerce reports in its review of the economic events of the year 1906 :—“ The lack of workpeople was in part caused by the reduction in the hours of labour in many industries on the pressure of the workpeople and their organisations. Thus the daily duration of work in the State and municipal undertakings in the machine branch and in allied industries is now 9 hours where it was 9J and 10 hours a short time ago. Stubborn opposition is shown by the workmen to overtime, even when high wages are offered. Opinions differ as to whether the curtailment of hours is equalised by the higher productivity of labour. One large establishment in the engineering industrv takes the affirmative view. . . . It is more frequently contended, however, that the workpeople are contented with their past earnings, which they have succeeded in maintaining in spite of the curtailment of hours owing to the simultaneous increase of the time or piece rates, and they do not show the least desire to earn more by piece work in the same time or willingness to work overtime. This may in part be a result of individual disposition, but it must chiefly be attributed to the labour organisations, which, by holding out the fear of the piece rates being reduced, induce the workers not to exceed their past output. It is also hoped by this means, and by the refusal to work overtime to increase the demand for labour.” The rates of wages ruling in Berlin are relatively high in the skilled trades though against this advantage must be set the fact that rents and the general costs of living are also high. The piece system is almost universal where skilled labour is employed. In the engineering trade the highest wao-es are paid in certain branches of the electrical industry, though owin^ to the large inrush of workpeople the general rates now ruling in this industry do not exceed the rates in the engineering trade as a whole to the extent they once did. Here piecework is general, the number of hours worked ranges from 54 to 60 per week, and there is, as a consequence, great diversity in earning. Thus moulders who in ordinary machine shops earn from 34s. to 38s. lOofTper week earn in electrical works from 38s. to 40s. 6(7. ; fitters in machine shops earn from 30s. to 33s., and in electrical works 32s. 5(7. to 36s. ; turners in machine shops earn from 37s. 3d. to 38s. 10d., and in electrical works 35s. 8(7. to 42s • smiths in machine shops from 30s. to 31s. 2d., and in electrical works from 31s. 4d. to 42s. 6(7. ; pattern-makers in machine shops earn from 36s. to 37s and in electrical works from 37s. 10(7. to 45s. 10(7., while labourers earn from 20s to 23s. 7(7. and 22s. 9(7. to 24s. respectively.

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