TABLE 234.-Per cent of families in which wife has employment or keeps boarders or lodgers, by yearly earnings of husband and by general nativity and race of head of family. (STUDY OF HOUSEHOLDS.) [This table includes only races with 20 or more selected families reporting. The totals, however, are for all races. For selection of families see Vol. II, p. 6. Of the selected families, only those which have husband and wife present appear in this table.] a This column includes 9 families in which husbands' earnings are reported as "none.” In the above table 58 per cent of the wives whose husbands earn less than $400, 57.4 per cent of those whose husbands earn $400 to $600, and 22.8 per cent of the remaining wives are at work. It will be noted that as a rule the proportion of income-bearing wives decreases as the pay of the husband increases. Thus, with the exception of the Germans, each race reports the smallest proportion of wives working in the $600 or over group. Over 50 per cent of the North Italian, Magyar, and Ruthenian wives, 25 per cent or over of the second generation Irish, English, Hebrew, South Italian, and Slovak, a somewhat lower proportion of the German, and but 8.3 per cent of the Irish wives have employment or keep boarders or lodgers. SOURCES OF FAMILY INCOME. The sources of family income are shown in detail by the table next presented. This table shows, by general nativity and race of head of family, the percentage of families having an income within the year from husband, wife, children, boarders or lodgers, and other sources. TABLE 235.—Per cent of families having an income within the year from husband, wife, children, boarders or lodgers, and other sources, by general nativity and race of head of family. (STUDY OF HOUSEHOLDS.) [This table includes only races with 20 or more families reporting. The totals, however, are for all races. One family is excluded which reports income as "none."] In the above table 88.2 per cent of the 617 families have income. from the husbands; 37.3 per cent from boarders and lodgers, a considerably lower proportion from children, but 10.2 from unspecified sources, and a slightly greater proportion from the wives. These figures closely reflect the proportions of the foreign-born, but the proportions of families of native head of foreign father getting income from husband and children are slightly larger, from unspecified sources much larger, while but 2.9 per cent get income from wives and 17.1 per cent from boarders or lodgers. It will be noted that in every case, except the Irish, the husband is the main support of the family, the proportion of 71 per cent being much lower than the report of any other race. From 25 per cent to 56.2 per cent of the recent immigration races report income from the boarders or lodgers, as compared with 20 per cent or less of the races of past immigration, but still greater proportions of the latter receive income from children, less than 27 per cent of the former reporting this source. From the table it may be inferred that the native-born families of foreign father and those of the past immigrant races depend mostly upon the husband, children, and unspecified sources of income, while the more recent immigrant races depend principally upon the husbands and boarders or lodgers and to a lesser degree upon the wives. In the table next presented, in which the sources of family income are again shown in detail, each source specified is exclusive of all other sources. In other words, the proportion of families appearing under each designated source have their entire income from that source. TABLE 236.-Source of family income in detail, by general nativity and race of head of family. (STUDY OF HOUSEHOLDS.) [This table includes only races with 20 or more families reporting. The totals, however, are for all races. One family is excluded which reports income as "none."] In the above table, 33.7 per cent of the 617 families studied get their entire income from the husband, 25.6 per cent from husband and boarders or lodgers, and 16.4 per cent from unspecified sources or combination of sources. These figures closely reflect the proportions of the foreign-born, but the native-born of foreign father report 51.4 per cent supported entirely by the husband, 28.6 per cent by unspecified sources and 11.4 per cent by husband and children. It will be noted that the husband, either alone or in conjunction with the children or boarders or lodgers, is the principal income source of each race. Thus, the English and the Irish, both first and second generation, depend principally upon the husband and husband and children, while the other races depend principally upon the husband and husband and boarders or lodgers. A very small proportion of the Hebrews and from 11.8 per cent to 30 per cent of each of the other races get their entire family income from unspecified sources or combination of sources. RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF DIFFERENT SOURCES OF FAMILY INCOME. The relative importance of the different sources of income of the families studied in the community may be seen from the table next submitted, which shows, by general nativity and race of head of family, the per cent of total yearly income from the husband, wife, children, boarders or lodgers, and other sources. TABLE 237.-Per cent of total family income within the year from husband, wife, children, boarders or lodgers, and other sources, by general nativity and race of head of family. (STUDY OF HOUSEHOLD.) [This table includes only races with 20 or more families reporting. The totals, however, are for all races. One family is excluded which reports income as "none."] In this table 68.3 per cent of the income of the 617 families studied comes from the husband, 18 per cent from the children, and less than 6 per cent from any other specified source. These figures closely approximate the proportions of the foreign-born, but the native-born of foreign father report slightly higher proportions from the husband's earnings and unspecified sources, but less than 1 per cent from wife's earnings, as compared with 5.3 per cent of the foreign-born, and 14.2 per cent from the children as compared with 18.4 per cent of the foreign-born. Excepting the Irish, over 60 per cent of the family income of each specified race comes from the husband. Relatively large proportions of the remaining sources of income from each of the recent immigrant races, excepting the Hebrew, come from the wives, the Irish and English reporting by far the greatest proportionate contributions from the children, large proportions of the native-born of foreign father and foreign-born Germans also reporting. Of the Irish and North Italian incomes, over 10 per cent comes from boarders and lodgers, but with these exceptions comparatively small proportions of the income of each race come from this or other unspecified sources, the Slovaks, however, reporting 99 per cent of their income from unspecified sources. Summarizing, more than half of the Irish income comes from the children, boarders or lodgers. The major part of the income of each other race is from the husband, the children being secondary sources of income, and in the case of the recent immigrant races, the wives earnings form a somewhat less important source, the North Italian families augumenting their income largely by boarders' or lodgers' payments. 48296-VOL 17-11-22 |