COST OF LIVING COMPARED WITH FAMILY INCOME IN SEVEN CITIES.

COST of living; INCOME; CITY dwellers; PRICE increases; ECONOMIC consumption surveys; HOME economics

There are many more families than is generally known whose incomes are less than is required for a sound standard of living. A family can exist for a short period on much less income than is required to maintain health and decency for a long continuing period. Relief grants usually provide for no more than a short time, emergency level of existence with purchasing power below what is required even for a "minimum of subsistence" standard on a long time basis. The Basic Maintenance Budget described in this article is defined as affording more than a "minimum of subsistence" level but less than the "health and decency" standard which the skilled worker may hope to attain. The cost of a continuing Basic Maintenance Budget, however, as shown by the two tables in this article, is greater than the annual family income of a large part of the urban population. The Basic Maintenance Budget is a quantity budget worked out by extensive studies of the actual amounts and kinds of goods required for industrial, service, and other manual workers in 1935. Price increases, and to a minor extent, changes in kinds of goods purchased, account for subsequent increases in the cost of this budget.