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.

BERLIN. 11 each season. Thus there is no contact whatever between the manufacturers and the tailors who do the work. The Berlin clothing manufacturer is, in fact, only a manufacturer in name ; the real manufacturer is the contractor, who is supplied with the cloth to be cut up, works to his models on commission, and for the rest engages his labour on the cheapest terms which the market allows.. The question has often been asked, is the middleman a necessary element in the clothing trade? In Berlin the answer is in the affirmative, and it is contended that the abolition of this intermediary form of employment would revolutionise the conditions under which the clothing trade has for years been carried on, without any guarantee that the workers in general would benefit. The investigation made by the Berlin Chamber of Commerce established the fact that of the money paid by the manufacturer to the middleman the latter retains about one-half in the ladies’ dress and mantle trade, which entails on him most expense both in the preparatory and finishing processes, for he has to pay the cutters, button-hole makers, ironers, &c., while in the cheaper men’s and boys’ clothing trade he retains about one-third of the gross proceeds, from which again have to be deducted the costs of his own workshops. Many of the middlemen are not tailors by trade, but merely enterprising men of good organising capacity who have seen a " good thing ” in the clothing trade and from small beginnings have built up a remunerative connection. Owing to the seasonal character of the trade and the irregular hours worked the earnings of the tailors are very unequal. Approximately they may be given as follows for a full week’s work, payment being by piece :— (1) Ladies’ and children’s mantle trade, men 30s. per week, women 16s. ; (2) Ladies’ costume, coat, and blouse trade, women 15s. 6d ; (3) Men’s and boys’ dress trade, men 25s. to 35s., women 14s. For one or two months in the year, however, there is little or nothing to do. Tailors employed in workshops have better wages, and in the season good men can regularly earn 36s. It must be remembered that a large proportion of the home workers are married women, who in this way seek to supplement the earnings of the chief bread-winner, and are only able to devote odd hours to the work. How largely the custom of home working is a result of poverty may be concluded from a statement made in a memorial lately addressed to the Berlin Tramway Company by their employees : "The tramway employee is unfortunately unable to dispense with the earnings of his wife, even in normal domestic conditions, if he would maintain his family properly. The wife has really no choice in the matter.” So, too, of 2,051 municipal employees interrogated on the subject in 1905, 416, or 20*2 per cent., replied that their wives worked for money, 170 at charing, 161 as home workers, 17 in factories, and 68 in other ways. The earnings of 66 were under 3s. per week, those of 278 were from 3s. to 6s., of 46 from 7s. to 10s., and 25 earned more than 10s. weekly. Although the tramways, the electric power and lighting service, and some of the gasworks are still in private hands, the municipality of Berlin is the largest of local employers, its workpeople of all classes numbering some 13,000. The general rate of pay for unskilled labourers is 21s. for 60 hours’ work, rising to 24s., according to the years of service. Twelve years ago threepence per hour was a common rate for labourers employed on street and other outdoor work. The drivers of the principal Tramway Company begin with 25s. per week and rise to a maximum of 33s. after 20 years’ service, and the conductors begin with 22s. and rise to 30s. For several years the municipal workpeople of Berlin have enjoyed various concessions such as summer holidays, special help in sickness, pensions, and grants to widows and orphans. Here the municipality is following in the footsteps of the larger employers of labour, some of whom make liberal provision of the kind. The Siemens-Schuckert-Halske Electrical Companies paid in the year 1905-1906, in connection with their various estab lishments in Berlin and elsewhere, £7,230 in 310 old-age and other yearly pensions, £4,171 in temporary grants to 403 widows and 385 children, £102 to six widows on re-marriage, and £274 in benefactions to 253 other individuals, making a total grant of £11,777. Pension and distress funds also exist in connection with the Borsig, Loewe, Berlin-Anhalt, Keyling & Thomas, and other engineering works, as well as with the Tramway Company. Gifts at Christmas, at marriage, and at the confirmation of children are common, and some firms not only keep open the positions of men called to military service but make grants to their families during their absence. 29088 B 2

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