Spending of Middle-Income Families: Incomes and Expenditures of Salaried Workers in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1950

This Heller Committee study focuses on white-collar families with chief breadwinners employed in salaried occupations with earnings between $4800 and $7500. It analyzes the expenditures of 159 San Francisco Bay Area families and includes details on goods purchased, non-consumption expenditures, and a comparison with a 1950 Bureau of Labor Statistics Bay Area survey of families with lower incomes.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 190 pages
Publication date: 29 April 2022
Publisher: University of California Press

The majority of previous studies on family spending have focused on either wage-earning families or all families without distinction. This Heller Committee study, on the other hand, focuses on white-collar families in which the primary breadwinners held salaried jobs with earnings ranging from $4800 to $7500. A group about whose spending patterns have previously been little understood. The author examines the spending patterns of 159 families in the San Francisco Bay Area. The reader will discover not only the amounts spent in each broad category of expenditure, but also the specific items purchased; for example, information is provided on home ownership and rental, the purchase of new and used automobiles, and the types of household equipment acquired. Similar information will be provided for each category of expenditure, as well as for the use of installment buying. Furthermore, non-consumption expenditures, primarily provisions for insurance and retirement, are described in great detail. The study also includes a comparison of the economic behavior of these middle-income families with that revealed in a 1950 Bureau of Labor Statistics Bay Area survey of families with lower incomes. This title is part of UC Press' Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press' mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1957.

Weight: 272g
Dimension: 234 x 156 x 10 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780520307261