Poverty : a study of town life / by B. Seebohm Rowntree.

  • Seebohm Rowntree
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Poverty : a study of town life / by B. Seebohm Rowntree. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    427/472 (page 391)
    APPENDIX B In the text (p. 83) it has been shown that the average earnings per working-class family in York, including the whole earnings of all members of the family (irrespective of age), and payments made by lodgers for hoard and lodging, but excluding wages of members of the family who live away from home, as, for instance, domestic servants, were 32s. 8fd. weekly. It is here proposed to show what the average family earnings are, including the total earnings of lodgers and the wages of domestic servants. Earnings of Lodgers.—There are 1349 lodgers lodging with working-class families in York, viz.—1195 men and 154 women. Their occupations have been ascertained by direct inquiry, and their average earnings estimated in the same way as the earnings of householders (see p. 262). Their total earnings amount to <£1559, out of which sum it has been estimated that they pay £557 for board and lodging. If the total earnings of lodgers be included in the working- class earnings instead of merely the sum they pay for board and lodging, the total weekly earnings of the working classes in York are raised from £18,148 to £19,150, or 34s. 6|d. per family.1 Earnings of Domestic Servants.—I estimate the number of domestic servants in York to be 4296.2 I think, however, it would be over-stating the fact if we assumed that this figure represented the number of servants drawn from York working- class homes. The demand for girls in the York factories is large, and hence the proportion of York girls who go into domestic service is lowered. After making inquiry at some of the principal registry offices in the city, I have come to the 1 The 84 families who refused information and the 385 families living upon private means are not included in this calculation (see p. 83). 2 See p. 26.