2. _Actual Wages._--Those _really_ received, and which are equal to the
nominal wages, _plus_ the additions to, or _minus_ the deductions from,
them.
3. _Casual Wages._--The earnings of the men who are only occasionally
employed.
4. _Average Casual or Constant Wages._--Those obtained throughout the
year by such as are either occasionally or regularly employed.
5. _Individual Wages._--Those of particular hands, whether belonging
to the scurf or honourable trade, whether working long or short hours,
whether partially or fully employed, and the like.
6. _General Wages._--Or the _average_ wages of the whole trade,
constant or casual, fully or partially employed, honourable or scurf,
long and short hour men, &c., &c., all lumped together and the mean
taken of the whole.
Now in the preceding account of the working scavagers’ mode and rate
of payment I have spoken only of the nominal wages; and in order to
arrive at their actual wages we must, as we have seen, ascertain
what additions and what deductions are generally made to and from
this amount. The deductions in the honourable trade are, as usual,
inconsiderable.
TABLE SHOWING THE DIVISION OF LABOUR, MODE AND RATES OF PAYMENT,
NATURE OF WORK PERFORMED, TIME UNEMPLOYED, AND AVERAGE EARNINGS OF THE
OPERATIVE SCAVAGERS OF LONDON.
-------------------------+------------+-------------------------+----------------------------------------------+
| Mode of | Rates of | |
OPERATIVE SCAVAGERS. | Payment. | Payment. | Nature of Work performed. |
-------------------------+------------+-------------------------+----------------------------------------------+
| | | |
I. _Manual Labourers._ | | | |
A. Better Paid. | | | |
Ganger |By the day. |18_s._ weekly, and 2_s._ | To load the cart and superintend the men. |
| | allowance. | |
Carman (2 horse) | „ „ |18_s._ weekly, and 2_s._ | To take care of the horses, help to load the |
| | allowance. | cart, and take the dirt and slop to the |
| | | dust-yard. |
Ditto (1 horse) | „ „ |16_s._ weekly, and 2_s._ | Ditto. ditto. ditto. |
| | allowance. | |
Sweepers | „ „ |16_s._ weekly, and 2_s._ | To sweep the district to which they are sent,|
| | allowance. | and collect the dirt or slop ready for |
| | | carting away. |
B. Worse Paid. | | | |
Ganger | „ „ |16_s._ weekly, and 1_s._ | To load the cart and superintend the men. |
| | allowance. | |
Carman | „ „ |15_s._ weekly, and 1_s._ | To take charge of the horse and cart, help |
| | allowance. | to load the cart, and take the dirt or slop|
| | | to the dust-yard. |
Sweepers | „ „ |15_s._ weekly, and 1_s._ | To sweep the district, collect the dirt or |
| | allowance. | slop ready for carting off, work in the |
| | | yard, and load the barge. |
| | | |
II. _Machine Men._ | | | |
Carman | „ „ |16_s._ weekly. | To take charge of the horse and machine, |
| | | collect the dirt and take it to the yard. |
Sweepers | „ „ |16_s._ weekly. | To sweep where the machine cannot touch, |
| | | work in the yard, and load the barges. |
| | | |
III. _Parish Men._ | | | |
A. Out-door Paupers. | | | |
1. Paid in Money. | | | |
Married men | „ „ |9_s._ weekly. | Sweep the streets and courts belonging to |
| | | the parish, and collect the dirt or slop |
| | | ready for carting away. |
Single men | „ „ |6_s._ weekly. | Ditto. ditto. ditto. |
2. Paid part in kind. | | | |
Married men | „ „ |6_s._ 9_d._ weekly, and | Ditto. ditto. ditto. |
| | 3 quartern loaves. | |
Single men | „ „ |5_s._ and 3 half-quartern| Ditto. ditto. ditto. |
| | loaves. | |
B. In-door Paupers |All in kind.|Food, lodging, and | Ditto. ditto. ditto. |
| | clothes. | |
| | | |
IV. _Street-Orderlies._ | | | |
Foreman or Ganger |By the day. |15_s._ weekly. | Superintend the men and see that their work |
| | | is done well. |
Sweepers | „ „ |12_s._ weekly. | Collect the dirt or slop ready for carting |
| | | away. |
Barrow men | „ „ | | Collect the short dung as it gathers in the |
| | | district to which they are appointed. |
Barrow boys | „ „ | | Ditto. ditto. ditto. |
+-------------------------------+-------------------------------------
| Time unemployed during | Average casual (or constant) gains
| the Year. | throughout the Year.
+-------------------------------+-------------------------------------
| |
| |
| |
| Not two days during the year. | 20_s._ per week.
| |
| Seldom or never out of | 20_s._ „
| employment. |
| |
| Ditto. ditto. | 18_s._ „
| |
| About three months during | 13_s._ 6_d._ „
| the year. |
| |
| |
| Three months during the year. | 12_s._ 9_d._ „
| |
| Ditto. ditto. | 12_s._ „
| |
| |
| Ditto. ditto. | 12_s._ „
| |
| |
| |
| |
| Ditto. ditto. | 12_s._ „
| |
| Ditto. ditto. | 12_s._ „
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| Six months during the year. | 4_s._ 6_d._ „
| |
| |
| Ditto. ditto. | 3_s._ „
| |
| Ditto. ditto. | 3_s._ 4-1/2_d._ and 3 quartern loaves
| | weekly.
| Ditto. ditto. | 2_s._ 6_d._ and 3 half-quartern loaves
| | weekly.
| | Food, lodging, and clothes.
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
All the _tools_ used by operative scavagers are supplied to them by
their employers--the tools being only brooms and shovels; and for this
supply there are _no stoppages_ to cover the expense.
Neither by _fines_ nor by way of _security_ are the men’s wages reduced.
The _truck system_, moreover, is unknown, and has never prevailed
in the trade. I heard of only one instance of an approach to it. A
yard foreman, some years ago, who had a great deal of influence with
his employer, had a chandler’s-shop, managed by his wife, and it was
broadly intimated to the men that they must make their purchases there.
Complaints, however, were made to the contractor, and the foreman
dismissed. One man of whom I inquired did not even know what the “truck
system” meant; and when informed, thought they were “pretty safe” from
it, as the contractor had nothing which he _could_ truck with the men,
and if “he polls us hisself,” the man said, “he’s not likely to let
anybody else do it.”
There are, moreover, no trade-payments to which the men are subjected;
there are no trade-societies among the working men, no benefit nor sick
clubs; neither do parochial relief and family labour characterize the
regular hands in the honourable trade, although in sickness they may
have no other resource.
Indeed, the working scavagers employed by the more honourable portion
of the trade, instead of having any deductions made from their nominal
wages, have rather additions to them in the form of perquisites coming
from the public. These perquisites consist of allowances of beer-money,
obtained in the same manner as the dustmen--not through the medium of
their employers (though, to say the least, through their sufferance),
but from the householders of the parish in which their labours are
prosecuted.
The scavagers, it seems, are not required to sweep any places
considered “private,” nor even to sweep the public foot-paths; and when
they _do_ sweep or carry away the refuse of a butcher’s premises, for
instance--for, by law, the butcher is required to do so himself--they
receive a gratuity. In the contract entered into by the city scavagers,
it is expressly covenanted that no men employed shall accept gratuities
from the householders; a condition little or not at all regarded,
though I am told that these gratuities become less every year. I am
informed also by an experienced butcher, who had at one time a private
slaughter-house in the Borough, that, until within these six or seven
years, he thought the scavagers, and even the dustmen, would carry
away entrails, &c., in the carts, from the butcher’s and the knacker’s
premises, for an allowance.
I cannot learn that the contractors, whether of the honourable or scurf
trade, take any advantage of these “allowances.” A working scavager
receives the same wage, when he enjoys what I heard called in another
trade “the height of perquisites,” or is employed in a locality where
there are no such additions to his wages. I believe, however, that the
contracting scavagers let their best and steadiest hands have the best
perquisited work.
These perquisites, I am assured, average from 1_s._ to 2_s._ a week,
but one butcher told me he thought 1_s._ 6_d._ might be rather too high
an average, for a pint of beer (2_d._) was the customary sum given, and
that was, or ought to be, divided among the gang. “In my opinion,” he
said, “there’ll be no allowances in a year or two.” By the amount of
these perquisites, then, the scavagers’ gains are so far enhanced.
The wages, therefore, of an operative scavager in full employ, and
working for the “honourable” portion of the trade, may be thus
expressed:--
_Nominal_ weekly wages 16_s._
Perquisites in the form of allowances
for beer from the public 2_s._
------
_Actual_ weekly wages 18_s._