ABSTRACT
If one knows something of the rank-ordering of money-wages received, there are two possible ways of ascertaining the standard of living: as before, there is an indirect approach, which in this case establishes the prices of the individual commodities being consumed, and there is a direct approach, which involves the use of household budgets. Thus, one can establish whether the domestic economic units being compared really have relatively similar standings. The statistical material on wages that is available, particularly for the United States, is sufficient to give us an approximate picture of the structure of money-income in the working class, or at least to enable us to recognise the outlines of this picture. This chapter tries to give a picture of the size and gradation of money-wages in the United States and endeavours to compare the data thus obtained with those of other countries, particularly Germany.
