There is a more important cause of difference than these.
When the average income of a working family is named, it must not be supposed that this represents the wage of the father of the family alone.

Each family contains about 21/4 workers on an average.

This is a fact, the significance of which is obvious.

In some families, the father and mother, and one or two of the children, will be contributors to the weekly income; in other cases, the burden of maintaining a large family may be thrown entirely on the shoulders of a single worker, perhaps the widowed mother.

If we reckon that the average wage of a working man is about 24s., that of a working woman 15s., we realize the strain which the loss of the male bread-winner throws on the survivor.
In looking at the gradations of income among the working-classes, it must be borne in mind that as you go lower down in the standard of living, each drop in money income represents a far more than proportionate increase of the pressure of poverty.