BELL SYSTEM TECHNICAL JOURNAL 



as to differences in the grade of the population. Wage-earners and 

 low salaried people of the types studied by the Bureau of Labor 

 Statistics occupy about the same position in the community in a 

 large number of cities. As a rule they pay about 80 to 90 per cent 

 of the median^ rent in any city. Exception must be made in the 

 case of cities having an unusually large proportion of negro or very 

 low grade white population. It is interesting in this connection to 

 compare wage rates for different classes of labor in various cities. 

 The variation between cities in wage rates for common labor is pro- 

 portionately much greater than the variation in wages for work 

 requiring some skill, such as bricklaying and structural iron work. 



As examples of the impossibility of accurately rating the grade 

 of a city's population by its median rent alone, we may take four 

 cities where surveys were made in 1921. Spokane and Houston had 

 practically identical median rents of $23.00 and $23.40 respectively, 

 but Houston is not as good a telephone market as Spokane. In 

 Cleveland and Minneapolis the median rents were found to be $35.50 

 and $31.00 respectively, but this is no measure of the grades of the 

 two cities. 



Rent Data from Various Sources, Including England. Some addi- 

 tional rent data is presented here without extended comment. The 

 two following tables show the proportion which rent bears to total 

 expense in different communities. 



TABLE III. 



Pre- War Expenditures for Rent with a ' ' Normal ' ' Standard of Living 



(Senate Report on "Woman and Child Wage Earners") 



Manhattan 20. 7% 



Fall River 17.6% 



Georgia and North Carolina 6.3% 



Homestead, Pa 15 . 5% 



TABLE IV. 



Allowances for Rent in Post-War Standard Workingman's Budgets 



' See Appendix. 



