Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress. : Appendix Volume XXXVI. Some industries employing women paupers. A supplement to the report (Appendix vol. XVII) by Miss Constance Williams and Mr. Thomas Jones on the effect of outdoor relief on wages and the conditions of employment.

  • Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress 1905-09
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress. : Appendix Volume XXXVI. Some industries employing women paupers. A supplement to the report (Appendix vol. XVII) by Miss Constance Williams and Mr. Thomas Jones on the effect of outdoor relief on wages and the conditions of employment. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    To The Secretary, The Eoyal CoMxMission on the Poor Laws and the Relief of Distress. THE EFFECT OF OUTDOOR RELIEF ON WAGES AND THE ; CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT. Sir, In accordance with the Memorandum and Instructions communicated to us, we have the honour to submit a Supplement to our Report on Out-rehef and Wages. This Supplement contains a number of interviews with firms employing women of the pauper class (or their female relatives) together with some tabulated wage statistics obtained from these and similar firms. The facts set forth have, for the most part, been submitted to the Commission in confidential form in the series of interim reports prepared by us. In order to preserve the anonymity of the firms who supplied us with particulars, Mr. Jones has now rearranged the information without reference to localities or Poor Law Unions, and has written an Introductory Note. We are much indebted to those employers who granted us interviews, who furnished lis with wage statistics, and who have courteously allowed the Commission to make pubhc the information thus gained. We are, Your obedient Servants, CONSTANCE WILLIAMS. THOMAS JONES. INTRODUCTORY NOTE. The material presented in the following pages was obtained during an investigation in 1906 and 1907 into the relation of outdoor relief to wages and the conditions of employ- ment in various parts of the United Kingdom. The investigators were instructed, among other matters :— I. —To compare the rate of wages and the conditions of work in the same industry or employment— (a) In firms or estabhshments where the workers are, and (b) In firms or establishments where the workers are not recipients of out-rehef. II. —To compare the rate of wages in similar industries— ; _ _ {a) In districts where a large amount of out-rehef is given, and (6) In districts where a small amount of out-rehef is given. III.—To ascertain whether there is any evidence— (a) That unskilled workpeople are attracted to districts where out-rehef is freely given, (6) That any underpaid or irregular industries are attracted to districts where out-rehef is freely given, and (c) That any industries have been kept ahve which, without Poor Law help, would have disappeared or migrated. The main results of our investigation appear as Appendix Vol. XVII. [Cd. 4690] to the Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Rehef of Distress, 1909, to which the reader is referred. The present volume contains material which could not conveniently be included in the earher and general Report. In carrying out our instructions the following plan was adopted : the books of the reheving officers were examined and a list made out of all wage-earning women paupers and their relatives in the parish or union, who were engaged in workshops or factories. Their employers were then visited, and an attempt made to ascertain the general industrial conditions surrounding the working pauper. The age, wage, character, and domestic