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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    thirty years ago our girls were a rough lot, but to-day they are generaJly very well behaved and certainly very clean. We are occasionally asked to fill in a paper of wages, but we notice it generally refers to a daughter who is earning. We feel that the guardians do not always take enough account of family earnings in the allocation of out-reUef, and we are much inclined to fear that the loafer very often comes off the best. Firm No. 6. Work (^one.—Woollen spinning and weaving. Nuniber employed.—About 350 women and boys. Wages.—Fifteen years ago the mill was worked on the time system, and girls in the carding department made 8s. to 9s. a week. The workers are now on piece, and those same girls can earn lis. or 12s. a week. Some young boys are employed, and get 5s. a week to start. The median wage for a normal week varies from 9s. 6d. for piecers (spinners) up to 14s. 7d. for weavers. Regularity of Work.—The trade is liable to variations, but for many years this firm has given steady employment. In slack times hours are cut down, and workers are not dismissed. General Conditions.—The bulk of the workers are women (none married, one a widow). Tn the spinning department boys are sometimes taken on, as there is a scarcity of girls for this work. These boys stay till they are sixteen or seventeen, and then go off to be apprentice masons or joiners. They cannot be absorbed ; there is not much work for men m the mill. Any man's job, however, that turns up is offered to the biggest of the boys if fit for it, but the chances are not many. Many of the girls are hereditary weavers and these are very skilful and can earn high wages. At the same time there is an increase in wages all round, due in large measure to increased difficulty of the work. More fancy patterns are now made, and this means increased difficulty, an advance in the skill required and a proportionate rise in wages. The manager estimated that the skill required for making the same length of cloth was 40 per cent, greater now than it was fifteen years ago. There is some movement between the woollen mills and the paper mills. But because the seasonal variations in these two trades largely coincide, this movement is never great. Firm No. 7. Work done.—The manufacture of tweeds, embracing winding, twisting and weaving. JVumber employed.—Girls over eighteen, thirty-two; under eighteen, four. Wages.—The median wage for a normal week varies from 10s. for twisters and winders to 14s. lid. for darners and pickers, and 20s. 6d. for weavers. Pickers and darners are paid Ifd. an hour, and so much per piece over and above. Weavers are paid so much an ell. New pickers, learning, earn according to their ability. Regularity of Work.—November, December, and sometimes January are slack months. This makes no difference to the numbers employed ; but the mill goes on short time (49 hours per week). The firm never make their employees work overtime. Even in the busiest seasons, they keep to a fifty-five hours' week. General Social Conditions.—The employees are the best class of working girls in the town. There have been few changes among the girls for a long number of years. Darners and weavers never leave unless to get married. Some of the girls have been over twenty years with the firm. The one married woman among the workers has been there over thirty years. Her husband left her, and as she was a good worker the firm were glad to take her back again. Firm No. 8. Work Done.—Wool is received in bales and sent out as finished tweeds. Regularity of Work.—Generally speaking, the same number of workers are em- ]ployed year in, year out, in spite of trade fluctuations. Numbers Employed.—There are eighteen men; forty-four women over eighteen, sixteen girls under eighteen. Among them are two widows. Wages.—The girls being engaged in so many different processes, it is somewhat difficult to state wages. In spinning girls start on time at 4s. 6d., and in winding at Ss.