The learner as workwoman.
The low wages paid to learners offer great temptations to employers to set these extra cheap workgirls upon certain "fat" kinds of work. Some kinds of work, e.g., gathering, have thus come to be regarded as learners' perquisites, and in one extreme instance a worker made as much money when a learner on half pay as she did subsequently on whole pay.[58]
[58] These figures from typical houses showing proportions of learners and journeywomen are interesting:—
| Workers. | Learners. | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| A. | 75 | 14 | |
| B. | 87 | 19 | |
| C. | 7 | 3 | |
| D. | 8 | 3 | |
| E. | 12 | 11 | |
| F. | 26 | 20 |
These houses are engaged in various kinds of bookbinding and printing.
In several cases we have been able to trace the exact amount gained by the employer:—
1. A. in the last sixteen weeks of her half-pay period made £3 18s. 6d., an average of 4s. 10¾d. per week. For the next sixteen weeks, when a full hand, her average was 9s. 8d.
2. B. in twenty-three weeks before she became a full hand made £4 9s. 10d., or an average of 3s. 10¾d. per week. During the next twenty-three weeks her average was 7s. 0-½d., a few pence less than double.
3. C. in fifty-one weeks made £15 5s. 4½d., practically 6s. per week; if on full wage, her average would have been 11s. 11½d.