On the question whether an extensive prevalence of "supplementary earnings" tends to reduce the wages paid to other members of the family, our investigations in these trades threw no light. Only in one case, where a husband and wife were questioned, was the opinion stated that, "Now that women go into trades so much, a man and a woman together only make as much as a man used to." The question is one which can be answered only by investigation in other trades, the circumstances of which are more favourable for its elucidation.
Wages rates and married women.
What little influence the married woman has upon wages seems to be to raise and not to lower them. That is the unanimous opinion of the forewomen in London, and they know best.[91]
[91] The following are extracts from the opinions of forewomen on this point:——"They don't lower rates; they want more."—"They don't lower rates of pay; it is rather the reverse, for they are most troublesome about the price; e.g., the other day a married woman, a new hand, made four or five girls refuse to do some sewing at the price quoted, so they and she sat idle and wasted their time till the forewoman saw what she could do for them. She (the forewoman) pointed out to the girls how foolish it was to waste their time like that, and they said that they wouldn't have done it by themselves."—"So far from working for less if they don't get enough, they say—'Thank you' and walk off."—"They are the first to grumble; they don't think it worth coming unless they can make something good."—"Married women are more trouble than the unmarried; they are at the bottom of any agitation, and won't come if you are slack, for they wouldn't get enough to pay for washing."—"They are more independent than single workers, and teach the others to stand out."—"They think it a favour to do your work."—"They won't work for less, for they generally have more than themselves to keep."—A forewoman of a book-folding department in a large firm said that though not employing married women on her regular staff, she had had some experience of them as job hands, and found that they would not do ordinary work at ordinary rates, it not being worth their while. "They have not got to earn money, as they have husbands to fall back upon."—To this should be added the testimony of one thoughtful observer, who has considered the question during a long experience in the trade. He has never come across a case where married women have lowered the rate of pay; on the other hand, the elder women often complain that the young girls who are living at home don't mind having 1/4d. or 1/2d. cut off.—See also the Report on Home Work, published by the Women's Industrial Council, 19, Buckingham Street, Strand, 6d., for further details confirming this view.
In a good many instances, the married women complained that the unmarried ones accepted reductions, and at a Conference held at Manchester in connection with this investigation, the opinion was unanimously expressed that married women do not lower wages, but, "on the contrary, the casuals grumble most and get most."[92] "I know of a case," writes a Plymouth correspondent, "where a married woman would not work for less than 15s., which she obtained and retained for a year or two." Out of a batch of ninety employers who had definite opinions upon the influence of married women upon the standard of wages, seventy-seven said they did not lower it, and thirteen that they did. The married woman is more able than the unmarried girl to appreciate the relation between wages and living expenses, and when she returns to the workshop, it is as a worker who accepts the life of the wage earner as a final fact and not as a mere interval between school and marriage.
[92] The casually employed sometimes give trouble owing to unpunctuality, and several employers have complained against married women on this ground. But the investigation as a whole does not show the complaint to be at all general.
The married woman is more independent and disinclined to accept low rates when offered, and she is generally chosen to go on deputations making complaints to employers. A Trade Union official said that theoretically the married woman ought to reduce wages, but that he was bound to say that his experience in the trade taught him that she did not. She has acquired the right to grumble, and she is put down in a considerable proportion of the reports as the centre from which general discontent in the workrooms emanates. Many employers object to her in consequence.
She seems to regard herself as a permanent worker when she is a widow, and generally remains for a considerable time—twenty or thirty years—with her employers without thinking of changing. She is not so "particular" as her unmarried co-worker, and does not give herself so many "airs." She cleans litho-rollers without "turning up her nose." She is, in short, part and parcel of the fellowship of wage earners; her unmarried sister is not.