Yours sincerely,
(Signed) D. Lloyd George.
She then asked if they were to receive the same war bonuses and increases as men, and what was to be paid women time workers; but her second letter was not answered.
The complaints and agitation continued. Mrs. Pankhurst escorted a procession of women to interview the Minister of Munitions about wages on munitions work. Examples of sweated wages were cited in Parliament. In reply to this deputation, Lloyd George announced his policy in regard to the payment of women munition workers as follows:
The government will see that there is no sweated labor. For some time women will be unskilled and untrained; they can not turn out as much work as the men who have been at it for some time, so we can not give the full rate of wages. Whatever these wages are, they should be fair, and there should be a fixed minimum, and we should not utilize the services of women in order to get cheaper labor.
Finally, in October, 1915, the Ministry sent out to all “controlled establishments” a circular of recommendations for wage rates for women “on men’s work,” drawn up by a Wages Subcommittee of the Central Labor Supply Committee, composed of a woman trade unionist and three representatives of the engineering trade. The circular, which is always referred to as “L2,” fixed a prescribed (not a minimum) time rate of £1 ($4.80) weekly, and the same piece rates for women as for men. The committee had urged that the time rate should be a minimum but to this the Ministry was not willing to agree. A special paragraph emphasized that women doing skilled men’s work should be paid the men’s rate. The Ministry had no power to enforce the recommendations, however, and they were by no means universally observed. Opinions as to their efficacy vary from the official view that “National factories were instructed to adopt these provisions, and many, though not all, private firms put them into force.”[116] to the radical criticism that the “recommendations might have been of value had there been any means of enforcing them. As it was, the circular was merely an expression of opinion which [tended to lull the public] into a state of security unjustified by facts.”[117] The Woman Worker even went so far as to say that “in January last [1916], a very important firm stated that they were the only firm in the United Kingdom that were paying wages in accordance with Mr. Lloyd George’s circular.”[118]
In the fall of 1915 the trade unionists entered on an active campaign to give the Ministry power to fix wages for women and unskilled and semi-skilled men, the men’s unions fearing the permanent lowering of their standard rates, and the women’s organizations being perhaps more concerned in behalf of the underpaid women themselves. In January, 1916, the men’s unions demanded, as the price of their continued help in promoting “dilution,” that the provisions of “L2” should be made compulsory. By the amending act of January 27, 1916, the Ministry of Munitions were empowered to fix wage rates for all females and for semi-skilled men on skilled work in munition plants where clearance cards were required. The National Federation of Women Workers was active in securing the change, and its magazine describes the struggle in its usual picturesque style.[119]
Wage Fixing for
“Women on Men’s Work”
In a month the provisions of Circular L2 were made compulsory.[120] The directions were “on the basis of setting up of the machines being otherwise provided for. They are strictly confined to the war period.” Women time workers of eighteen years and over on men’s work were to be paid a pound ($4.80) for a week of the usual hours worked by men in engineering. Rates for piece work and for work ordinarily done by “fully skilled” men were to be the same as those customarily paid men, but women were not to be put on any form of piece work until “sufficiently qualified.” The principle of “equal pay for equal work” was further laid down specifically in the following clause: “The principle upon which the directions proceed is that on systems of payment by results—equal payment shall be made to women as to men for an equal amount of work done.” Further safeguards of the rates included giving women the same overtime, night shift, Sunday and holiday allowances as the men, and providing that piece rates should not be cut. Women were to be paid at the rate of 15s. a week ($3.60) for time lost by “air raids” or other causes beyond the workers’ control. The order was applied only to controlled establishments in engineering and allied industries on the ground that it was designed primarily to meet conditions in those trades.[121]
Wage Fixing for
“Women Not on Men’s Work”
The regulation of wages for women doing men’s work covered only part of the munition workers, however. As The Woman Worker remarked, “What about the women who are doing important work not recognized as men’s work? There are many more of these; they are, generally speaking, much worse off; they are less able to protect themselves; and, therefore, this claim on the Minister to fulfill his pledged word is even stronger than for the others.”[122] The Wages Subcommittee which drafted L2 had drawn up wage recommendations for them in November and December, 1915, but no action was taken on the recommendations. The standard of wages among this group of women at the time is illustrated by the rates fixed in an important trade agreement reached in November, 1915, and covering the whole Midlands area. Its weekly rate for an adult woman was 16s. ($3.84). In March, 1916, under powers given the Ministry of Munitions by the munitions amendment act, a “Special Arbitration Tribunal” was established to settle disputes regarding women’s wages referred to it under the anti-strike clauses of the munitions acts, and to advise the Minister on wage awards for women munition makers. The tribunal consisted of a secretary and half a dozen members, two of whom were women. In Miss Susan Lawrence it had a woman long active in behalf of the women workers, and in Mr. Ernest Aves an expert on minimum wage regulation. The tribunal is said to have been “perhaps more important and successful than was expected.”[123] The National Federation of Women Workers at once brought before it several cases dealing with the wages of munition workers in individual factories on “work not recognized as men’s work.” In general the awards made in these cases gave time workers about 4½d. (9 cents) an hour, and piece workers a guaranteed minimum of about 4d. (8 cents), with the provision that the piece rates should yield the ordinary worker at least a third more.