Wages and expenditure.
An attempt has been made to discover how far the earnings of women workers in these trades are only supplementary to family income, and how far the family worker is entirely dependent upon them for her livelihood. On the whole (but with important exceptions) they appear to be supplementary. In cases, certain fixed weekly payments are made for board and lodging to the relatives who are heads of the households, but these payments are not enforced in times of unemployment and are reduced when work is slack. Even when being made in full they do not always represent the actual cost of accommodation and living. It is becoming less and less common, it seems, for the wives of idle and improvident husbands to eke out their household income by casual or seasonal work, but the practice is still followed and in London prevails to a relatively considerable extent. In such cases the women do not work for mere pocket-money, nor again, do their wages cover the full cost of their living.
"Miss —— lives at home and her parents are evidently in comfortable circumstances," runs one report of a book-folder. "I went into the best parlour, where there was a piano—also a high hat in the corner!"
The following gives a somewhat fuller picture of these workers:—"Mrs. —— is a widow and has no children. She looks about sixty and is probably about fifty. She lives on the top floor in model dwellings (three rooms, for which she pays 5s. 9d.) Her husband died in 1891 of consumption, and she does not know what she would have done had she not been made forewoman (in a book-folding room). She does not see how a pieceworker can support herself. She must live at home. Most of the girls working under her live at home and give their mothers 7s. a week, keeping the rest for themselves. She was doing some washing and mangling when I called. A little girl comes to help clean, but otherwise she does everything for herself."
A fairly large employer in London stated that his "girls are living with their parents and work for pocket-money." Another "would think that about half lived at home." One woman stated, "A bit of extra money comes in handy. It is nice for a woman to put a little by—you cannot expect her to save out of her husband's money"; another said: "A woman ought never to let her husband know what she earns—if she is foolish enough to do that, he at once becomes lazy and extravagant. A woman should only work after marriage either to save a little money, or to help a sick or delicate husband." A well-known London general stationery dealer reports: "Some of the women employed are the wives of the porters and packers, but in the majority of cases the husbands are worthless, and the earnings of the women are the chief support of the household." In one case reported upon, a girl, working in a Bible and prayer-book house, having to support herself, could not do it, and began pilfering prayer-books to make both ends meet. She was turned away as a thief.
For the purpose of throwing light upon the problems with which this chapter deals, particulars have been obtained from one firm in London where eighty-six women are employed. The married women are described as follows:—
1. A widow.
2. Has a husband, a bookbinder in good work, but they are extravagant.
3. Has a husband in work.
4. A widow.
5. A widow with a daughter to support.
6. A widow.
7. Has a husband in work. Has been summoned for boys not attending school.
8. Has a husband who drinks. Looks after her children and goes home at dinner time.
9. A widow with recalcitrant boy.
10. Has a husband in work.
11. Has a husband irregularly employed. Very poor and slatternly.
12. Has a husband who drinks.
Of the unmarried workers, one learned the trade when on in years because, owing to a misfortune, she had to bring up her brothers and sisters. She was very slow and her earnings only averaged about 7s. per week. Two support themselves. The others live at home and pay 6s. or 7s. per week, or hand over everything they make, and receive back small sums for pocketmoney.
A report from another well-known firm of bookbinders in London states that in a room of ten women, five support themselves. In some instances it is noted that married women have to receive charitable aid in looking after their children when they themselves go to work. Of a large printing firm it is said, "Most of the girls at ... don't seem to mind if they make money or not. They couldn't possibly keep themselves on what they earned." This was the statement of a girl working with the firm and erred in being too absolute; but an examination of the wage returns showed that, somewhat modified and limited, it was true. A manager of a co-operative bookbinding establishment estimated that, from his experience, not more than 25 per cent. of the girls working in that trade, regarded their wages as the only means by which they supported themselves. The forewoman of a large stationery department stated that only three out of twenty girls under her had to depend on their own wages. The conclusion of a report submitted by an official of the Typographical Association in Coventry may be taken as being true of the provinces generally. "The females for the most part are young girls, with a sprinkling of experienced and older hands who leave when about entering married life."
Evidently it is a very common thing for such workers to pay so much into a common purse from which general family expenses are drawn, and into which the individual contributions vary with the state of trade.
The industrial effect of these conditions is obvious. The women keep no vigilant eye upon wages which are fixed rather by use and wont than by competitive pressure. Employers have rarely[90] to offer high pay as an inducement to women to enter these trades, and, consequently, there is always a downward drag upon wages, and although the women spasmodically interest themselves in their conditions, they feel so little dependence on wages that they can never be taught to make that steady upward pressure which would improve the organisation of these trades and yield more return for labour. Hence, the low rate of wages obtainable by those who have to maintain themselves is kept down almost solely by the circumstance that such a large proportion of the women employed remain part of families and share in general family income. It should be noted that it is often the policy of employers to be "careful only to take respectable young girls who live with their parents." The economic influence of this "respectable" standard is obvious.
[90] The establishment of a laundry in the vicinity of a well-known provincial firm of printers resulted in an increase of wages in the shape of a guarantee that no wages should be paid under 6s. per week.