Note 1 — Chapter I · INTRODUCTORY

The term “individual wages” is used here to denote wages paid either to men or women as individuals, and regarded as belonging to the individual person, while “family wages” are those which cover the services of the whole family and belong to the family as a whole. This definition differs from the common use of the terms, but is necessary for the explanation of some important points. In ordinary conversation “individual wages” indicate those which maintain an individual only, while “family wages” are those upon which a family lives. This does not imply a real difference in the wages, as the same amount of money can be used to support one individual in comfort or a family in penury. In modern times the law recognises a theoretic obligation on the part of a man to support his children, but has no power to divert his wages to that purpose. His wages are in fact recognised as his individual property. The position of the family was very different in the seventeenth century.