  We have succeeded in getting the authentic records of wages from about eighteen firms in London, representing every branch of work in connection with printing, binding, and despatch, and employing together 1,000 hands—more in busy, less in slack weeks. We have also less detailed information about some half-dozen other firms. These studied together and apart will no doubt give a correct general impression of the amount and variability of wages paid, but circumstances have made it very difficult to group them so as to give a simple bird's-eye view of the whole. These circumstances are partly due to the very great differences between the class of work done by the various firms, and the difficulty of tabulating the workers under a few definite heads; partly to the difficulty of collecting records. Our investigators were recommended:— i. To get complete wage sheets for as many weeks as their time and the courtesy of the manager allowed, making the record as complete as possible for 1899, and extending their researches back as far as the books existed, choosing the wage sheets of one week in every month. ii. To trace individual workers through as long a period as possible, choosing workers who would best illustrate all the various conditions of employment. iii. To note any other information. As regards i., we have the wage sheets for some 470 separate weeks, in addition to the complete lists of two very small firms for one and four years respectively; ii., the complete earnings of about 130 hands for periods varying from one to fourteen years. Owing to the fact that it was impossible to get the complete lists through 1899 for many firms, and that the periods of slackness and full work were not the same in different places, it proved very difficult to handle the wage lists. At last the The earnings of the 130 individual hands is a very valuable and, it may be, almost unique record. Many interesting facts are brought out by their study, and the records should have a place in sociological literature apart from their interest in the present connection. It has been necessary to make a technical use of averages in collating and tabulating the material, and we offer the following explanations. Where the word "average" is used without qualification, it is the ordinary arithmetic average, obtained by dividing the total by the number of payees. This is the best for general quantitative measurements. In most cases the median and quartiles and sometimes the dispersions have been calculated. They may be explained as follows. Suppose the wages of, say, sixty persons to be arranged in ascending order, e.g., 5s., 5s. 3d., 6s., 6s. 1d. ... 11s. 9d., 12s., 12s. 6d., then the wage halfway up the list is the median wage; thus, there are as many individuals above the median as below it. The wages halfway from the ends to the median (i.e., fifteenth and forty-fifth from bottom), are the quartiles, so that between the quartiles half the wages are grouped. Thus, if the median and quartiles in the above list were 7s. 6d., 10s. 6d., 12s. 6d., there would be fifteen earning less than 7s. 6d., fifteen more than 12s. 6d., thirty between 7s. 6d. and 12s. 6d., thirty below and thirty above 10s. 6d. For a single measurement of the grouping of the wages about their median, the distance between it and the quartiles is significant: in this example 3s. and 2s. are these distances. The more convenient way of stating this is to express half the distance between the quartiles (2s. 6d.) as a fraction of their average 10s., which is generally very nearly the median. This fraction (1/4 or ·25) we call the dispersion, and it enables us to study I.—STATISTICAL VIEW OF THE VARIOUS FIRMS.FIRM A.—Information obtained.—Wages of thirty-six hands tabulated week by week through 1899. Total amount paid in wages and total number employed each week, 1885-1899. The whole wages sheet for one week in July and one week in November for each of these fifteen years. A. is a firm employing from fifty to one hundred and ten women and girls as folders, stitchers and sewers. The number employed has changed gradually; in 1885-7 there were about a hundred: from 1888 to 1894 the number continually diminished to sixty, and after a brief spurt in the autumn of 1894 to one hundred and fifteen and a rapid fall, has from 1895 to 1899 gradually risen from fifty to ninety. Through the fifteen years which the statistics cover, 1885-1899, the annual average (roughly calculated) has fluctuated within the narrow limits of 8s. 9d. and 10s. 6d.; it was above 10s. in 1888, 1889, 1897, 1898, 1899; below 9s. in 1886 and 1894. This average includes the learners. But when examined more minutely it is seen that the fluctuations week by week and month by month are very rapid. Briefly, there is a change of about 4s. in four-weekly cycles. Thus in November, 1899, the averages for the five weeks were 10s., 11s. 2d., 13s. 9d., 13s. 10d., 12s. In November the wages are much higher than in July, and evidently more regular in character; the number earning near the average is also greater. Thus the "dispersion" in November is generally about ·2 (the quartiles and median being, for example, 12s., 15s., 18s.); while in July it is generally about ·4 (e.g., 3s. 9d., 6s. 3d., 8s. 9d.). Again, it seems quite doubtful each year whether there will be any July wages worth the name; the median in four weeks selected each year in July changes from 2s. 11d. to 8s. 2d.; while that for selected weeks in November is from 10s. 8d. to 17s. 11d., a smaller proportionate variation. The majority are piece workers. The following table shows the wages in two weeks (slack and For the 15 years: 1st six months, 9s.; 2nd six months, 10s.; year, 9s. 6d. FIRM B.—Information obtained.—Wages of five hands tabulated week by week, for years 1886-99, 1887-99, 1896-99, 1898-99, 1899, respectively. Monthly earnings and half-yearly bonus for all regular hands, 1888-99. Weekly wages of all hands throughout eighteen months in the years 1886-96 and 1899, three weeks in 1877 and two in 1898. This firm employs folders, stitchers, and sewers.—The number of permanent hands employed increased with slight variations from two in 1886 to twelve in 1899. Jobbers are occasionally employed, sometimes as many as there are permanent hands. Considering the regular hands and choosing each year a wage earner near the median for that year, we have the following table.
[x] (half-year) [y] (9 months) In a typical week, January 5th-12th, 1899, the wages were: Full workers, average, 16s. 2d. 1 at 21s. 5 between 16s. and 17s. 4 at 15s. and 16s. 1 at 14s. 10d. 1 at 12s. 9d. Learners in their third year, 2 at 10s. 6d. Learners in their second year, 1 at 5s. 9 jobbers, average 5s. 5d. 1 at 7s. 2d. 4 between 5s. and 7s. 4 less than 5s. Average, for all except learners, 11s. 7d. FIRM C.—Information obtained.—Complete list of wages for first week in every month, from January, 1897, to February, 1900. Full lists in five weeks described as "slack," "busy," or "typical." The wages of fifteen hands tabulated, most of them throughout 1897-99. The work is divided into four departments:— Binders, from twenty-nine to thirty-eight hands. The median wage fluctuated in the three years between 11s. and 17s., excluding holiday weeks; 13s. is the general average. About six are on time wages. In the warehouse, where Government folding is done, five hands are employed. The median wage of this group fluctuated in 1897 between 16s. and 27s., being low at the end of 1897. In 1898 and 1899 it was a little steadier, averaging about 21s. (piece rates). In the envelope room, where folding and relief stamping is done, seven to thirteen hands are employed. The median wage is very variable, fluctuating from 9s. to 16s., and averaging about 12s., chiefly time wages. Machine ruling is done by from four to eleven girls. Their median wage was nearly steady at 6s. in 1897 and 1898, and rose regularly to 8s. in 1899. Nominally these were time wages. The following table shows detailed wages in five selected weeks (learners excluded).
FIRM D.—Information obtained.—Complete lists of wages in all weeks in 1899. Wages of thirty-one hands tabulated week by week through 1899. The lists are made up in five divisions. 1. Sixty-five to seventy-eight employed in sewing, folding and collating (of whom eleven to seventeen are learners). Excluding Bank Holiday weeks and learners, the average wage fluctuates only between 10s. and 13s. 9d. Average for 1st half, 12s.; 2nd half, 11s. 6d.; year, 11s. 9d. 2. Eighty to ninety (including sixteen to twenty-three learners), collating and sewing. Average from 10s. 7d. to 16s. 3d. Average for 1st half, 13s. 5d.; 2nd half, 13s. 2d.; year, 13s. 3d. 3. Eighty-three to ninety-two (including thirteen to thirty learners), folding. Average from 10s. 6d. to 16s. 5d. Average for 1st half, 13s.; 2nd half, 13s.; year, 13s. 4. Layers-on, about six. Average fluctuates from 12s. to 24s. 8d.; 1st half, 15s. 7d.; 2nd half, 16s. 11d.; year, 16s. 3d. 5. Lookers-over, four or six. Fluctuates from 11s. 8d. to 15s. 10d. Average for year, 13s. 8d. The following table shows detailed wages in five selected weeks.
FIRM E.— Information obtained.—Complete wage list for one week each month from August, 1894, to December, 1899. Wages of eight hands tabulated, five through the whole period. Folding, stitching and sewing are done. Number employed was nearly regular, but increased from forty to sixty, and fell back to fifty. The median fluctuates rapidly and greatly, but shows a gradual rise from 13s. (with fluctuations down to 8s. and up to 16s.) to 16s. (with fluctuations down to 10s. and up to 19s.). The "dispersion" has changed little, and was about ·15. The following weeks (table p. 121) show the general run of wages.
FIRM F.—Information obtained.—Wages for all hands each week in 1896, and until March, 1900. So few are employed that no average can be given, and the wages are treated later under individual hands. Also a small bookbinding firm. 1. A quick folder; wages generally from 12s. to 16s., but fluctuations down to 5s. and up to 20s. 2. A quick sewer; very fluctuating, about 10s. 3. A collator at 3¼d. per hour; 12s., with fluctuations. FIRM G.—Information obtained.—List of wages paid in 2nd week in each month, 1896, February, 1900, and four other weeks. Wages of fourteen hands; six throughout the period. Machine Ruling.—Four to nine hands, generally seven to nine. Time wages. Median moves slowly and steadily from 6s. to 7s. during 1896-99. ALL DEPARTMENTS. Weeks Selected at Beginning and End of Data.
Stamping.—Four, increasing to twelve hands, sometimes sixteen. The low wages are time (presumably learners); the rest piece. Time hands are excluded in the medians here, and in binding and despatch. Median is sometimes fluctuating, but not far from 12s. or 13s. for long.
Binding room, including despatch, till middle of 1897, when numbers fell from forty to twenty. The despatch room, beginning with twenty, increased to thirty hands. Binding—median varies from 11s. to 17s.
Despatch—median steadier and rising.
FIRM H. —Information obtained.—Wage list, 3rd week in every month, 1895-98. Every week in 1899, and eight special weeks. Wages of three hands tabulated throughout period. Work done.—Printers' folding, sewing, magazines. No bookbinding. Twenty-four to thirty-eight hands. Median very variable; e.g., July, 1899, 14s. 2d., 16s. 6d., 13s. 7d., 15s. 10d.
General trend to 13s.
FIRM I. —Publishers and bookbinders. No printers' folding. Information obtained.—Wage lists: 2nd week in each month, October, 1898, to March, 1900. Total wages every week to March, 1900. Wages of nine hands tabulated throughout. 48 hours: no record of overtime.
The total wage bill was:—
[x] Five weeks.
FIRM J. —A firm undertaking magazine work. Information obtained.—General statement of ordinary wages. Wages in three selected weeks. Bookfolding, stitching, wrapping, etc. (magazine work). Work is regular for three weeks; none in the fourth. WAGES OF ALL EMPLOYED.
FIRM K. —A publisher's bookbinder. Information obtained.—Wage sheet for three selected weeks in 1898-9. A week as slack as the slack week here given, was only experienced two or three times.
FIRM L. —Compositors.—Information obtained: Complete wages of the six hands employed through 1900. No. 1 has been in the trade two and a half years. In 1900 she was away seven weeks (three, slack trade; two, holidays; two, ill); in the remaining forty-five weeks her wages fluctuated between 5s. and 18s. 3d., reached a total of £28 15s. 9d., making an average of 11s. 1d. weekly through the year, or 12s. 7d. per week employed. No. 2 lost four weeks in 1900 through slack trade. In the remaining forty-eight weeks her wages fluctuated between 5s. 6d. and 23s.; reached a total of £40 4s. 11d., making an average of 15s. 6d. weekly through the year. No. 3 made £52 9s., working fifty-one weeks at £1 per week, making 29s. overtime, and taking one week's holiday; average, 20s. 2d. weekly for the year. No. 4 made £37 16s. in forty-four weeks, lost five weeks No. 5 made £39 1s. 9d. in forty-six weeks, lost four weeks through slack trade, was ill one week and took one week's holiday; average, 15s. weekly for the year. No. 6 made £22 1s. 6d. in forty-eight weeks, lost three weeks through slack trade, was ill for one week. She was unsuccessful in her work, and only averaged 8s. 4d. a week through the year. FIRM M.—A press warehouse. Information obtained.—Wage list in three selected weeks.
FIRM N. —Bookbinders. Information obtained.—Complete wage sheets for three selected weeks. Folders, piece; collators, time.
FIRM O. Information obtained.—Wage lists in three selected weeks, probably in first half of 1900. Five hands.
FIRM P. Information obtained.—Wage lists in three selected weeks. Wages of twelve selected workers in these weeks.
FIRM Q. Information obtained.—Wage lists in eleven selected weeks. Work done—machine ruling in its higher branches, usually done by men; also paging and numbering (see table, p. 131). FIRM Q.
Additional information from other firms, 1900-1901:— FIRM R.—Bookbinders. Folders and sewers, 14s., 15s.; head banders, 15s.; forty-eight hours weekly all the year. FIRM S.—Eleven numberers; median, 17s. 8d. FIRM T.—Printing works. Piece workers make 5d. an hour; time workers, 5½d. Four compositors: average, busy week, 23s. 2d.; typical, 19s. 11d.; slack, 18s. 9d. FIRM U.—Vellum sewers, 12s. to 13s. all the year round; numerical printers, average week, 15s. to 16s.; slack week, 10s. FIRM V.—
In this case there is very little to choose between the weeks entered as "typical" and "busy" by the employer. FIRM W. —Two compositors make, at 5½d. an hour, 22s. or 23s. nearly every week in the year. The inclusion of the eighty-four workers, of whom we have sufficient details in firms R. to W., would affect the figures on p. 133 below very slightly, raising the median and upper quartile 2d., and increasing the proportion between 18s. and 22s. to 13½ per cent. of the whole instead of 12¼ per cent. II.—GENERAL GROUPING OF WAGES.The material is not sufficiently complete or homogeneous to allow any complete account of wages at any date; but the tables now given (supplemented occasionally by the raw material) allow us to offer an estimate of the grouping in a typical week of 1899, supposing each firm to be paying typical wages in one and the same week. This method is rough, and will not support any fine calculations to be based on it; but at the same time it affords a view, sufficiently accurate for most purposes, of the general trend and distribution of wages. All classes of workers, except apprentices and learners, are included. AN ESTIMATE OF WAGES IN A TYPICAL WEEK IN 1899 OF 1,001 WORKERS IN ALL BRANCHES.
These figures are so similar in many respects to those which generally arise when a large group of trades are massed together, that they afford strong evidence that they make a fair sample. Remembering the roughness of the hypothesis, and not assuming that these wages multiplied by fifty-two give annual earnings, we find, in a week which the employers regard as typical, the following: Average, 13s. 8d.; median, 13s. 8d.; quartiles, 10s. 6d., 16s. 10d.; dispersion .23. Thus, half the wage earners obtain between 10s. 6d. and 16s. 10d.; and 80 per cent. obtain from 7s. 4d. to 20s. There is some doubt as to who are and who should properly be included at both ends of the series. At the lower end, no doubt, some learners have been included, and some piece workers excluded, for in a typical week there would certainly be some cases where the wages were abnormally low. On the other hand, in the large number above 24s., no doubt many above the status of the ordinary worker are included, and some are definitely stated to be forewomen. If we omit all above 24s., we have: Average, 13s. 4d.; median, 13s. 7d.; quartiles, 10s. 5d., 16s. 6d. The difference in these averages is not significant. The table is best written in percentage.
Note, that if these wages were repeated week by week through the year the average worker would make about £35. III.—CHANGE OF WAGES BETWEEN 1885 AND 1900.Where wages are continually fluctuating week by week and month by month, while, in addition, there are depressions and inflations affecting various groups of workers for one or two years, it is a matter of very great statistical difficulty to determine whether wages have on the whole been stationary, rising, or falling. Even if we had a complete account year by year these difficulties would remain; but as it is we are dependent on the records of only seven firms—good, bad, or indifferent—since 1885, 1887, 1894, 1895, 1896, 1897, and 1898, respectively. No amount of further research would make such records more than very insufficient, for it is very rarely that the figures are preserved for any length of time. What changes there are may very likely be due to peculiarities of a particular firm, to its success, or to changes in character of work, and only in case of agreement in all the figures could we generalise. Our conclusions, then, will be chiefly negative. There is no sufficient evidence that wages in 1899 are above or below wages about 1895, 1890 or 1885; the only difference appears to be due to individual busy or slack years. In the two cases (C. and G.) where machine rulers are separated their wages have risen from 6s. to 8s. in 1897-99. As regards the years 1896-99, there is no general agreement as to any two years, but the figures are consistent with a slight general improvement from 1895 to 1900. There is nothing in the figures to show that the course of wages in Firm A. given above is different from that in the trade in general, while there is just a little evidence that it is the same. We therefore repeat the annual average wage in that firm:— 1885. 1886. 1887. 1888. 1889. 1890. 1891-2. 9s. 1d. 8s. 10d. 9s. 9s. 4d. 10s. 1d. 10s. 6d. 9s. 6d. 1892-3. 1894. 1895. 1896. 1897-8. 1899. 9s. 8s. 11d. 9s. 4d. 9s. 8d. 10s. 4d. 10s. 1d. IV.—WAGES IN DIFFERENT OCCUPATIONS.The occupations are so involved, and the arrangements differ so much from firm to firm, that it is impracticable to state a definite wage for any occupation, and the wages are so diverse that it is useless to speak of an average wage. The table on p. 135 gives a general view of the wages of those hands who can be labelled with some exactness, and it is seen that the facts are so complex that they cannot be summarised in a few words. The wages included are the actual weekly averages (total annual receipts divided by fifty-two) in 1899, except where they are otherwise distinguished. WAGES IN DIFFERENT OCCUPATIONS.
V.—EARNINGS OF INDIVIDUALS.Out of the 130 lists we have, showing the actual earnings week by week of individuals for periods of one to fifteen years, thirty-nine have been selected, twenty-six of which are tabulated on the following pages (Appendix VI.), and twelve of which are represented in the following diagrams. These have been selected as illustrating the various classes of workers and of work. The most noticeable characteristic of the diagrams is the frequency and violence of the fluctuations, and the same is found in a study of the original figures throughout. A few time hands (Appendix VI.; diagram C), are nearly regular; only one shows perfectly regular earnings; many fluctuate as rapidly as the piece workers (Appendix VI.; diagram D. 2), and on the sheets we have several actual records of lost time and overtime, showing how these changes arise; others show a steady increase with slight movements (Appendix VI.; diagram A. 4). The four Bank Holiday seasons are marked on most of the diagrams and wage lists. The most interesting, novel, and important feature of these lists is the light thrown on the very obscure relation (obscure in all branches of industry) between "nominal," "average," or "typical" wages and actual annual earnings; there are in existence very few actual records of individuals' earnings over a series of years for any workers in the United Kingdom. The workers included in the list are among the more regular ones, who succeed in keeping their place month after month. Though the wages vary so greatly week by week, yet when we come to take the average over any period greater than, say, two months, we find there is but little variation. Thus, in the example from Firm B. in diagram, the quarterly average is between 16s. and 17s. for nine years, except for absence in two quarters, and In view of this result, periodic pressure becomes relatively unimportant for the regular hands. There is no season in the industry as a whole shown in the wage lists. The different firms and different workers have in many cases their regular times of pressure like bank clerks and schoolmasters; these times are sometimes monthly, sometimes quarterly. In other cases no rule is to be discovered. The most important effect of this irregular pressure is in the number of jobbers employed. VI.—JOBBERS.Jobbers usually come in at the busy season and make good money. As they go from house to house, it is impossible to get a full account of any particular jobber's earnings. Jobbers are frequently employed in Firm B, and in many cases the highest wage earned is by a jobber. Thus in the last week of April, 1895, out of thirty workers, fifteen were jobbers; the eleven highest sums were earned by them, five being over £1. VII.—TIME AND PIECE RATES.The distinction between time rates and piece rates is not vital; the method of payment seems to be accidental, and the custom varies from house to house. Machine rulers seem generally to have time rates, and these are among the lowest earners, while some of the best paid permanent hands are also time. On looking through the lists of individuals' earnings, it is seen that time earnings are sometimes quite as variable as piece earnings, for hours worked fluctuate continually. In other cases the time payment is much more regular, showing fluctuations only at holidays. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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