The wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-????, 1910-09-23
STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE.
Cost of Living Has Increased 40 Per
Cent In Ten Years.


Cost of Living Has Increased 40 Per
Cent In Ten Years.
The cost of living during the past
fifteen years has been rapidly increas-
ing. In ten years it has gone up 40
per cent. This tendency will probably
never decrease very materially. While
wages have gone up they have by no
means kept pace with the living ex-
penses. The increase in the rate for
the skilled workers has been about 20
per cent. but the wages of unskilled la
Dor have remained practically station
airy. The greatest expenditure of the
average family is for food. constitut-
ing about IS per cent of the cost of
living. and it is in the food products
that the increased cost has been great
est. The next largest item Of expense
is that of rent. constituting about 20
per cent. and that for clothing follow
ing with about 16 per cent of the total
expenditure.
We need not discuss the causes of
this increased cost Of living. says the
Rev. Charles Stelzle. There is a very
wide difference Of opinion as to the
reasons for the increase. and no doubt
there is truth in all of them. But this
fact remains-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 decline in the cost of liv-
ing of at least Is per cent. The Amer
lean workingman is the most highly
skilled workingman in the world. He
produces more than the workingmen
do in other parts of the world. but
compared to what he produces. he is
probably the poorest paid workingman
in the world. The question Of living
wage must necessarily be relative
term. 1t depends altogether upon the
standard of living which men set up
for themselves. 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
subsist. The average family in New
York city cannot live comfortably on
less than $500 year. This applies to
practically every other city. Less than
this amount lowers the standard Of liv-
ing below the normal demands of
health, working efficiency and ordinary
decency.
The wages of the average worker in
the United States is $432.2O per an
mum. But this includes all wage earn
ers, and it must be evident that there
are large numbers Of workers who re-
ceive very much less than this amount.
1t should be remembered that large
numbers Of wage earners 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 laborers.
! who are more subject to casual en-
ployment than are the skilled work
ers. but even among the trade union
lists about 20 per cent are unemployed.
even during prosperous years. 1t is
trne 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 sup
port a family. but rather by what the
average family as Il whole may earn.
and this measure is the margin of
bare subsistence.