Living Costs In Terms Of Work

Chronicle (Levin), 30 November 1949, Page 5

Living Costs In Terms Of Work

LONDON, Nov. 29. The average worker in Britain has to work nihe times as long as the average American to buy 20 cigarettes. He has to work times as long to buy a pound of sugar. He has to work four times as long to buy a hat, and three times as iong to buy a suit or wireless set. These are among the comparisons issued by the National Industriai Conference in New York. The board says that immediately after devaluation, it fiew a team of .research workers to London to buy items on the budget of the average Briton and to translate them into hours of work needed to buy them. For 36 commodities listed ranging from potatoes to toothpaste, the average British worker, says the board, has to work 3^ times as long as the Average American. Food items included were bread, potatoes, tomato juice, sugar, tea, coffee, milk, • hutter, condenSed milk, eggs, beef, bacon aiid tinned hferring. For these, says the report, the British Workmah mliSt work on an average more thali twice as long as the American. Tea, it is claimed, is 50 per cent. dearer in "working holirs" thaii in America, coffee twice as dear, milk more th^n twice as dear, butter 20 per cent. dearer, eggs 50 per cent. dearer, beef about the same price and bacon 51 per cent. dearer. Only two of the items named are Cheaper in "working hours." They are haircuts and newspapers.