Full text : Cost of living in German towns

LEIPZIG.

305

Weekly  Wages

Weekly  Hours  of
Labour.

Woodworking  Trades  :—
Furniture  Making  :
Cabinetmakers  and  Polishers
Turners
Parquet-layers
Wheelwrights
Food,  &e.  Trades  :—
Journeyman  Bakers  (employed  by  Co
operative  Societies).
Brewing  :
Brewers  and  Coopers
Draymen  (Bottled  Beer)  ...
„  (Cask  Beer)
Assistant  Draymen
Enginemen  and  Stokers
Labourers  (over  20  years  of  age)
Printing  Trades:—
Hand  Compositors
Machine  Minders
Pressmen

(  News
|  Jobbing

Machine  Compositors
Music  Printers
Stereotypers
Electrotypers
Engravers
Etchers  ...
Retouchers

Bookbinding  :—
Binders
Pressers  and  Operatives  at  Cover-making
Machines.
Warehousemen  and  Porters  in  Bookselling  Trade

25s.  5d.
23s.  10  d.
35s.  8d.
24s.  4c?.

25s.  2d.

28s.  to  30s.
27s.
23s.  to  25s.
21s.  „  23s.
22s.  „  24s.
20s.  ,,  22s.

27s.
33s.  9d.
35s.  M
20s.  to  24s.
27s.  „  33s.
30s.  Id*
39s.*
32s.  lid*
32s.  Id*

25s.
33s.  6d

18s.  to  25s.

53
53
51
54

52

60
60
60
60
60
60

54
48
54
54
54
54
481
521
521

54
54

60  to  66

Average  weekly  earnings  in  1905.

Wages  are  comparatively  very  high  in  Leipzig—much  higher  than  in  any
other  town  in  Saxony.  Representing  wages  in  Berlin  by  100,  the  corresponding
figures  for  Leipzig  are—for  the  building  trades,  88  for  skilled  men  and  95  for
labourers  ;  for  the  engineering  trades  95  for  skilled  men  and  96  for  labourers  ;
and  the  printing  trades  96.
By  way  of  concluding  this  section  of  the  report  a  few  particulars  are  added
as  to  the  conditions  of  labour  of  municipal  workers.  So  far  as  employment  of
labour  is  concerned  the  most  important  of  the  services  undertaken  by  the
municipality  of  Leipzig  is  that  of  the  gas  supply,  including  street  lighting  by
gas.  The  total  number  of  workpeople  employed  in  this  service  at  the  end  of
1905  was  661,  divided  into  four  wage  classes.  The  first  and  best  paid  class
comprises  the  stokers  in  the  retort  houses  and  a  small  number  of  the  more
experienced  artisans  (masons,  carpenters,  pipe-layers).  The  scale  of  pay  for
this  class  ranges  from  4s.  Id.  per  day  in  the  first  to  5s.  2d.  after  the  fourth  year
of  service  ;  that  is  to  say,  from  27s.  Qd.  to  31s.  per  week,  and  it  may  be
assumed  that  the  majority  of  those  employed  at  any  given  time  would  be  men
who  have  completed  four  years  of  service  and  reached  the  maximum  rate  of
their  scale.  The  stokers  in  the  retort  houses  only  work  45  minutes  to  an  hour
at  a  stretch,  after  which  they  rest  for  an  hour  to  an  hour-and-a-quarter,  so  that
of  the  12  hours  during  which  they  are  on  duty  in  the  retort  house  their  time  of
actual  work  at  the  furnaces  only  amounts  to  four-and-a-half  to  six  hours  daily.
Stokers  are  required  to  bring  two  shirts  every  day  besides  the  one  in  use,  so  as
to  be  able  to  change  after  each  spell  of  work  at  the  furnaces.  Coffee  and  warm
shower  baths  are  provided  free  at  the  works,  and  few  if  any  of  the  men  neglect
to  avail  themselves  of  the  latter  at  the  end  of  their  shift.
The  second  wage-class  comprises  the  general  body  of  skilled  artisans  and
the  leading  men  in  the  ammonia  factory.  The  wages  range  from  4a.  2d.  to

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