LONDON’S WAGE-EARNING CLASSES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 484, 23 September 1909, Page 2

LONDON’S WAGE-EARNING CLASSES.

How many readers would care to work fifteen hours a day for a wage 'of less than threepence an hour all the year round, with but the afternoon of Christmas Day for a holiday ? Doubtless they will agree that such a prospect would, to say the least, be very uninviting. . Nevertheless, such are the conditions under which many shop assistants in the Old Country, particularly those in some tobacco shops, are working to-day. In London there are men assistants

earning as low as 2%d an hour, and working for ninety-one hours a week, which does not work out at a weekly salary of 225. What is worse, perhaps, is that several thousands of young women engaged in tobacco and sweet shops work a seven-days week of ninetyfive hours. In other businesses, too; the complaint of low wages and long hours is heard. In London the wages of men grocers vary from 2%d to B%d an hour, while the hours range from fiftysix to eighty-four per week. In the provinces to B%d an hour is paid, while the hours range from forty-six to ninety-two. Butchers’ assistants are paid anything from to B%d an hour, and may work from fifty-four to ninety hours per week, while the boot trade pay their men assistants from to hi the provinces and 5d to yd in London, the hours varying from fifty-four to eightysix. The lowest wages seem to be paid in the confectionary trade, shop assistants earning from 2d to 4d an hour in the country and to in the Metropolis, the hours ranging from sixty-six to eighty-four. In the drapery trade provinciial wages range from 2d to is per hour, and London 2j4d to is 4d, women receiving from id to in the provinces and to in London, but in these cases most of the assistants live in. Much, of course, has been written for and against the system of living in, and in common fairness it should be stated that the majority of employers are as anxious to improve upon that system as the employees themselves.