The earnings of agricultural laborers on the farms of western New York range from $1.25 to $1.75 per day of ten hours. South Italian families of four or five members, engaged in this kind of work, average from $350 to $450 for the season, extending from April to November. Poles, working as general farm laborers the year round, earn from $18 to $20 per month.[[231]] Among the anthracite coal miners of Pennsylvania, the average yearly wage of the contract miners, who make up about twenty-five per cent of persons employed about the mines, is estimated at about $600 per year, while “adults in other classes of mine workers, who form over sixty per cent of the labor force, do not receive an annual average wage of $450.”[[232]] In the extensive array of wage figures given by Mr. Streightoff, distinction is not made between natives and immigrants, but the general showing harmonizes so well with what has already been given as to obviate the necessity of going into this question in further detail.[[233]] We are justified in setting down the average earnings of wage-working adult male immigrants as from $350 to $650 per year, and the average annual income of immigrant families at from $500 to $900.
The figures given for individual immigrant incomes have been confined to male workers, for the reasons that they are representative, and are of primary importance in determining the status of the immigrant family in this country. The wages of female workers range on the average from 30 to 40 per cent below those of males. Full comparisons are given in the volume of the Immigration Commission Report on Immigrants in Manufacturing and Mining.
The next question which arises is, to what degree are these incomes, of individuals and families, adequate to furnish proper support to an average family of five persons? This problem involves the determination of the minimum amount on which a family can live in decency under existing conditions in America. Numerous efforts have been made to solve this question. The estimate of the Bureau of Statistics of Massachusetts is $754.[[234]] The Charity Organization Society of Buffalo regards $634 a year as the “lowest tolerable budget which will allow the bare decencies of life for a family of five.”[[235]] A special committee of the New York State Conference of Charities and Corrections in 1907 made the following estimates as to the income necessary for a family of five persons in New York City.
“$600–$700 is wholly inadequate to maintain a proper standard of living, and no self-respecting family should be asked or expected to live on such an income.”
“With an income of between $700–$800 a family can barely support itself, provided it is subject to no extraordinary expenditures by reason of sickness, death, or other untoward circumstances. Such a family can live without charitable assistance through exceptional management and in the absence of emergencies.”
“$825 is sufficient for the average family of five individuals, comprising the father, mother, and three children under 14 years of age to maintain a fairly proper standard of living in the Borough of Manhattan.”
Mr. Streightoff summarizes the evidence in the following words: “It is, then, conservative to set $650 as the extreme low limit of the Living Wage in cities of the North, East, and West. Probably $600 is high enough for the cities of the South. At this wage there can be no saving, and a minimum of pleasure.”[[236]]
The close correspondence of these various estimates gives them a high degree of credibility. If we fix these standards in mind, and then look back over the wage scales given on the foregoing pages, we are struck with the utter inadequacy of the annual incomes of the foreign-born to meet even these minimum requirements of decency. It is obvious that an enormous number of immigrant families, if dependent solely on the earnings of the head of the family, would fall far below any of these standards, and that many of them, even when adding to their resources by the labors of wife and children, and the contributions of boarders, cannot possibly bring the total income up to the minimum limit. Even the average income in many occupations is far below this minimum, and it must be considered that while an average indicates that there are some above, there must also be many below, the line. What must be the condition of those below! The average family income of the foreign-born studied in the Immigration Commission’s investigation of the manufacturing and mining industries was $704. Mr. Frederic Almy states that 96 per cent of the Poles under investigation in Buffalo earn less by $110 than the $634 per year which was set as the “lowest tolerable budget.”[[237]]
A vast amount of information covering a number of miscellaneous aspects of human life, which fall under the general head of the standard of living, is furnished by the Immigration Commission, in its report on the manufacturing and mining industries. Some of the most important of these facts are summarized in the following tables.
First, as to the situation of young children in the homes of immigrants.