Table A
| Industry. | Percentage numbers of women working full time in the last pay-week of September 1906, whose earnings fell within the undermentioned limits. | Average earnings for full time. | |||
| Under 10s. | 10s. and under 15s. | 15s. and over. | |||
| s. | d. | ||||
| All textiles | 13·3 | 38·8 | 47·9 | 15 | 5 |
| Cotton | 3·0 | 20·9 | 76·1 | 18 | 8 |
| Hosiery | 14·5 | 44·4 | 41·1 | 14 | 3 |
| Wool, worsted | 10·7 | 55·6 | 33·7 | 13 | 10 |
| Lace | 18·1 | 49·3 | 32·6 | 13 | 5 |
| Jute | 6·2 | 66·4 | 27·4 | 13 | 5 |
| Silk | 38·9 | 47·8 | 13·3 | 11 | 2 |
| Linen | 41·7 | 49·1 | 9·2 | 10 | 9 |
The cotton industry stands out conspicuously as showing a relatively high level of earnings, and we find in marked contrast to the other trades in this group that only 3 per cent of the women earned less than 10s. a week. The results coincide of course with popular impression, it being well known that the mill lasses of Lancashire are the best paid—probably because the best organised—large group of women workers in the country.
The woollen and worsted industry, like the cotton, is localised, being confined mainly to Yorkshire, though the woollen industry of the lowlands of Scotland is also important. In this trade the results are much less satisfactory, the average being 13s. 10d., and considerably more than half the total number employed earning less than 15s. It may be noted, however, that in one town, Huddersfield, where women and men are engaged largely on the same work, the average, 17s. 1d., is considerably higher than that for the United Kingdom.
Hosiery is also strongly localised, the majority of the workpeople being employed in Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, and certain neighbouring parts of Derbyshire. It will be seen that in order of average earnings this industry stands next to, though a good distance from, cotton, the average being 14s. 3d. The best-paid centre is Leicester itself, where the average is 16s. 2d. Even in this relatively highly paid trade, however, more than half of the women earned less than 15s., and it should be noted that this result applies to factory workers only. In the hosiery trade a considerable amount of homework is also carried on, and though statistics are not at present available, it may safely be assumed that earnings in the homework section of the trade are less than in the factory section.
At the bottom of the list is the linen industry. The average here is only 10s. 9d.; less than one-tenth of the women employed earned more than 15s., while between one-third and one-half earned less than 10s. The industry, as is well known, is centred mainly in the North of Ireland, but is also carried on to a considerable extent in Scotland and to a small extent in England. The figures for Ireland, however, are not markedly lower than those for the other districts. It is true that for the whole of Ireland outside Belfast the average is only 9s. 9d., but the figure for Belfast itself, namely 10s. 10d., coincides with that for England.
The manufacture of jute is carried on almost entirely in the neighbourhood of Dundee. The average is therefore a local average.
The other industries require no special comment.
The second large group of trades, important from the point of view of women’s employment, is the clothing industry. Although the averages in this group do not show the extremes of the textile group, the industry is nevertheless one in which a great variety of skill and remuneration prevails. The following are the statistics, certain of the smaller trades such as silk and felt hat-making and leather glove-making being omitted for the sake of brevity:—
Table B