The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1910-08-27
LETTERS FROM
A WORKlNGMAN

,-.' & b r. E, I4s i
The cost OF living during the past
fifteen years has been rapidly, in
creasing. In ten years it has gone
up 40 per cent. This tendency will
probably never decrease very mate
rally. While wages have gone up,
they have by no means kept pace with
the living expenses. The increase in
the rate for thc skilled workers has
been about 20 per cent, but wages
OF unskilled labor have remained prac-
t1cally stationary. The greatest ex-
penditure of the average family is for
food, constituting about As per cent
CT the cost Of living, and it is in the
food products that the increased cost
has been greatest. The next largest
item of expense is that of rent, con-
shutting about 20 per cent and that
for clothing following with about Is
per cent of the total expenditure.
We need not discuss the causes Of
this increased cost OF living. There
Is a very wide difference Of opinion
a. to the reasons for the increase, and
no doubt there is truth in all of
them. But this act repains-it is
costing the average workingman more
to live today than it did fifteen years
ago, and his wages are not as great
proportionately as they were at the
beginning Of this period. If the rate
Of production, were the one factor at
work, instead of an increased cost Of
living, there should have been a de-
cline in the cost. of living of at least
IL per cent The American working
man Is the most highly skilled work.
ingman in the world. He produces
more'than the workingmen do in 9TH
er parts of the world, but compared
to what he, produces, he Is probably
the poorest paid workingman in the
world. - ~-'f. Z:
The question Of living wage must
necessarily be a, relative term. II
depends altogether upon the standard
OF living which men set up for them
selves. The living wage of the day
laborer would not be a living wage
for the average professional man. But,
generally, the: term is employed to
designate the amount upon which the
average Workingman and his family
may subsist The average family in
New York city cannot live comfort
atly on less than $500 a year. This
applies to practically every other
large city. Less than this amount
lowers the standard of living below
the normal demands of health, work.
ing efficiency and ordinary decency.
The wages of the average worker
in the United States is $432.2O per
annum. But this includes all wage
carriers and it must be evident that
there are large numbers of workers
who receive very much less than this
amount. A study of the earnings of
wage earners in: Bulletin No. SO of
the Bureau of the Census indicates
that during the5week that the census
was made in 1905, there were 225,793
wage .earners who received less than
So; 264,626 between SO and. 81; 34O,-
115 between 81 and IS! 363,693 be-
tween s. and Sc; $454,285 between
sc and 81; 453,203 between 81 and
IS; and 423;6S9 abetween IS and 50.
It should be remembered that large
numbers of ,wagetearners are not per-
manently employed during the year.
In many Industries the workers are
not employed more than half the
year. This applies principally to lab
orers, who are more subject to casual
employment than are the skilled
workers, but even among the trades
uhlOH1SlS dpOut ~ per cent are uH-
employed, even during prosperous
years.
1t is true that there is often more
than one wage Garner in the family.
But the measure of a mans wages
today is not determined by his ability
to support family, but rather by
what the average family as a whole
may earn, and this measure is the
margin of bare subsistence.-Rev
Chas. Sickle. =: