No servant of artificer or victualler in a town was to take more than those in the country (12 Richard II. cap. 4.).
In 1444.
| s. | d. | s. | d. | |||
| Bailiff of husbandry | 23 | 4 | With clothing | 5 | 0 | and food |
| Hind, carter, shepherd | 20 | 0 | ” | 4 | 0 | ” |
| Labourer | 15 | 0 | ” | 3 | 4 | ” |
| Woman servant | 10 | 0 | ” | 4 | 0 | ” |
| Child under 14 | 6 | 0 | ” | 3 | 0 | ” |
Summer wages of mason or carpenter 4d. a day with food, without 5d.; tiler, slater, rough mason, and builders 3d. with food; other labourers 2d. Without food 1d. more in all cases. Winter wages 1d. less all round. In harvest a mower 4d., reaper 3d.; labourers 2d.; 2d. more for meat and drink. (23 Henry VI. cap. 12.)
In 1495.
| s. | d. | s. | d. | |||
| Bailiffs had risen to | 26 | 8 | With clothing | 5 | 0 | |
| Carters, shepherd, &c., remained at | 20 | 0 | ”——” | 5 | 0 | |
| Labourers had risen to | 16 | 8 | ”——” | 4 | 0 | and food |
The hire of women, children, and artificers remained the same. (11 Henry VII. cap. 22.)
By 12 Henry VII. cap. 3, all statutes fixing the wages of artificers and labourers were made void for masons and all concerned in building, and servants in husbandry. Rogers (Work and Wages, ii. 327) fixes the wages of the ordinary artizan in the fifteenth century at 6d. a day and agricultural wages at 4d., carpenters a little under 6d., plumbers 6-1/2d., masons 6d. The board of a skilled artizan might cost in 1438 about 2s., of a common labourer about 1s., very commonly from 8d. to 10d., most generally 8d. (Agriculture and Prices, iv. 505, 751-2.) In 1395 a Nottingham “layer” was charged for working two days as stone-cutter for 12d. against the law, and the jury stated that “all the carpenters, all the plasterers, all the stone-cutters, all the labourers, take too much for their craft by the day, against the statute of our lord the King.” (Nott. Rec. i. 275.) For a list of wages paid in 1464 see ibid. ii. 370-373; in 1511 iii. 328-337. In 1495 a man was employed to dig stones at 3d. a day without food.
That there was difficulty in enforcing the legal wage and that there was often a difference between the prices actually paid and those which the law books spoke of as still valid is evident from the ingenious methods in use of evading the law. Sometimes the workman was paid his board wages and given his food besides; or false entries were made in the account books; or a yearly fee was given in addition to wages; or he was paid a sum of so much a mile for coming to and going from his work; or his wages were calculated at 6d. or 5d. according to ability for 365 days in the year, against the statute which forbade the workman to receive hire for holidays or for the eves of feasts. (Rogers’ Agric. and Prices, i. 255; Work and Wages, ii. 328-330; Stat. 4 Henry IV. cap. 14.)