How can a comparison be made between different eras? Not by money so much, but by a comparison of what that worker could afford to have in his home.
An article in the 1913 Journal of Home Economics describes an average apartment home in New York City:
". . a four room flat, rent nineteen dollars, nine in family. . This family of nine has a boarder to help pay the rent. . . There is a bath tub, but the clothes wringer and last winter’s sleds are always kept in it. This is not the home of a very poor family: the father earns twelve dollars a week, two girls are in a factory . ."
(from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
workers paint the Brooklyn Bridge 1915: pinterest.com
(cont'd tomorrow)
No comments:
Post a Comment