POOR PAY OF WOMEN WORKERS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume L, Issue 12287, 20 June 1903, Page 7

POOR PAY OF WOMEN WORKERS.

Wombn whoHvork for a living in Eng ? \ land are not, judged from a colonial standpoint,, well pad foi*. their labour.Sonic figures quoted by a writer in the London Paily Express ; make instructive reading/- There,ai,e 107.848 dressmakers employed by \ various firms- m Ldndon ;;the highest wage's obtainable' .^exc^fit ipt'ttie'^se of nbout, a dozen heads of departments— t\x*e 18s a week. Vj i^Thj^gi^ wfe^nia^^o .e^auisit^' Court-dress, t-ne oostTy .robes -vi;orn , by--'society,-receives 18s a week as a maximum sii]ary,,with a season of two or three .. months a yea?. ' Milliners in London have tb serve a two years apprenticeship, and then receive from 12j5 to 20s a week, except in the slack season, when' the earnings fall off con-, siderably. - Shop assistants average .£2O a year in wageX ' They are provided also with board and lodging*, but this is veryioften of: a very indifferent character. A trained' nurse earns from £26 to *£40 a yc&v, with -board and' lodgings, and- a washing allowance if in a hosgital.. "In the main, however, we' are told, "the profession is most precarious, Jind among tne rank, and lile^ great want is often espe-, riencedc' 1 Teachings in spite, of the years of. preparation and training re-" quired, is ve,ry poorly" remunerated in the cast of women. High school and board "school teachers in England earn on the average. from £70 to £100. There are "plums'* in this profession asj in others, but they are com paratively fe\v... In the Civil Service a Volnan can eaVn more than £100 a year, bjat. only after years of, service. i For clerical work the remuneration is 'poor in the extreme, and shorthand typists " can be obtained by the score; .for. the wage, of 10s a week* ' Thousands of women of the middle class in England ara absolutely 4epen r dent for a living • upon the scanty wajres they may earn at one or other of these employments. Is it surprising that .many of them sink, through ill-healtK or lack of work s from bare existence to absolute penury ? ** They toil more .or less intermittently, thjoagh charge or slackness of employment, for something under a pound a week, with no future before them, only a saddened old age, with, the grim] bare, walls of the workhouse as the end of, their tragic lives"— it is one of fche saddest and moit hopeless phf s?s of life in a great city.'