_WOMEN’S WORK: CLERICAL AND COMMERCIAL._
ROUTINE CLERICAL WORK: Type-writing and
shorthand--Secretaryships--Clerks and Book-keepers--THE
CIVIL SERVICE: The Post Office--Number of women
employed--Clerkships--Sorterships--Telegraph
Learnerships--Counter-women and Telegraphists--The
Telephones--Complaints against women--COMMERCE: Subordinate
position of women--Shopkeeping--Trade as a Career--SHOP
ASSISTANTS AND THEIR CONDITION: Wages--Deductions from
Wages--Fines--Forms of Agreement--Long Hours--“Counter
and Bed”--Select Committee on Mr. Provand’s
Bill--Evidence from different places--Select Committee
1888--Standing all day--Effect upon health--The _Lancet_
on the provision of seats--Combination of assistants
necessary--Insanitary Surroundings--Living in--Evils of
the system--Bad food and insufficient accommodation--No
social life--Hurried meals--Sunday arrangements--Personal
Narratives--Warehouses--Combination among assistants--Objects
of the different Societies--Legislation and its probable
effects--ADDENDUM: The Reports of the Lady Assistant
Commissioners to the Labour Commission--Miss Collet’s summary.
=Routine Clerical Work. Type-writing.=--There has been a great
increase of late in the variety of routine clerical work open to
women. The type-writing machine might have been designed for their
especial benefit, since it has brought within their reach a number
of occupations well suited to their capacities. The lady typist and
shorthand writer is a recognised institution in American commercial
houses; American women, with their superior adroitness, having promptly
seized upon an opening so favourable to their interests and adapted it
to their own use. The difficulty as to the two sexes working together
is not as much felt in America as here, and where special arrangements
have to be made or accommodation provided for women clerks it is done
without demur. For type-writing to be satisfactory as an occupation
it should be combined with shorthand, for a typist pure and simple
can seldom rise beyond a clerkship in a type-writing office, and must
not expect more than clerk’s pay; and in this case her weekly wages
will certainly be counted by shillings, not by pounds. The addition of
shorthand renders many kinds of secretarial work available, and here,
as in other occupations, any special skill or knowledge may lead to a
considerable increase in wages. An industrious typist who can secure a
good connection may make a fair, though not a large, income by working
on her own account. Authors and journalists often dictate their work to
a shorthand writer and typist, receiving it back in a few hours in a
handy and legible form. The usual fee is from 2_s._ to 3_s._ 6_d._ an
hour. Doctors, literary and public men, often give permanent employment
to a typist, and this kind of work is specially suited to women. Here
again, however, brains as well as manual skill are needed. Mere routine
work can never earn more than low wages.
=Clerks and Book-keepers.=--Female clerks and book-keepers are largely
employed in retail houses of business. To judge from their rapidly
increasing numbers it would seem as if their work were quite as
satisfactory as that of men, and yet their wages are invariably lower.
Herein, it is to be feared, lies the only difference between them
and the male clerks whom they supersede. From 15_s._ to £1 a week is
probably as much as a woman can expect in this employment; but, on the
other hand, a girl with an aptitude for business may sometimes make a
clerkship the stepping-stone to a forewoman or manager’s post, thus
leading, of course, to much higher wages. A well-known shipping firm
in Liverpool has for many years employed a lady to take charge of all
the ship linen and furniture. Under her is a large staff of clerks and
needlewomen, who carry on their work in comfortable and well-arranged
premises not far from the Docks. It is probable that as women come
to receive a more practical and thorough education they will be more
largely employed in posts in which care and attention to small details
is important. At present the capacity which women undoubtedly possess
in this direction is often neutralised by slovenly business habits.
=The Civil Service.=--Of clerkships those in connection with the Civil
Service are perhaps the most important. From the eagerness with which
women compete for its posts, indeed, the Civil Service would seem to
be a very El Dorado for its employés, a conclusion which is hardly
warranted by an examination of its conditions. The work, however, is
light, demands only moderate abilities, and is performed on the whole
under agreeable conditions. Wages are not high, but pensions are
attached to the most important branches, an advantage which hardly
any other employment open to women possesses. A woman who has worked
for forty years in the Post-office may retire with a pension equal to
two-thirds of her salary. Even after ten years of service a pension
of one-sixth is available. The respective amounts, in the case of
Post-office clerkships (to be described immediately), would probably be
about £80 and £15 per annum respectively, and a woman must be earning
exceptional wages in any other employment to put by sufficient to bring
in an income of even these modest dimensions. It is unfortunate that in
this, as in so many other occupations, women are willing to undersell
men. The clerks in the Post-office naturally look with anything but
favour upon the influx of women clerks at a lower wage, knowing that
it means their own gradual supercession. It is sometimes said that
the less robust health of women, and their consequently less regular
attendance, forms sufficient justification for a lower rate of pay;
but the alacrity of the public departments to engage female clerks
seems to shew that any disabilities on the score of health are more
than balanced by diminished salaries. Where the advantages to the
employer are equal there is seldom any eagerness to prefer the labour
of women. A similar displacement of men is going on in other Government
departments; at the War Office, in Special Commissions, and elsewhere,
women are being engaged for routine clerical work, and almost always at
a lower rate of payment than men.
=The Post-office.=--The most important public department with regard to
the employment of women is the Post-office. The Postmaster-General’s
Report for 1891 shows the total number of officials on the permanent
establishment, with sub-postmasters and letter receivers, to be 63,868,
of whom 8877 are women. Of these, 906 women are employed as clerks
in the chief offices in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, and 3750 as
“counter-women” and telegraphists throughout the kingdom, besides
others employed as sub-postmistresses and letter receivers. These
figures however do not represent the gross total of the Post-office
staff, for we are informed that about 54,000 other persons are employed
more or less in Post-office work, and of these 16,000 are women. In
this estimate are probably included the extra clerks, generally former
_employés_, who come in and help at times of special pressure, as well
as the domestic servants and needlewomen whose business it is to keep
the buildings and miscellaneous Post-office property in order.
=Classification.=--An impression prevails that women are only employed
by the Post-office in selling stamps and sending off telegrams, that
being the only branch of Post-office work of which the general public
has cognisance. “Counter-women,” however, as these _employés_ are
technically called, are only subordinate officials, and their work
is both less agreeable and worse paid than that of some of the other
departments. Post-office appointments, as far as women are concerned,
may be classified thus:
(1) Clerkships in the four great branches of the Post-office--the
Savings Bank, Postal Orders, Returned Letters, and Clearing House.
(2) Sorterships.
(3) Telegraph Learnerships.
(4) Counter-women and telegraphists.
=Clerkships.=--Of the posts just enumerated the clerkships are the
most important and best paid, and are filled by a superior class of
women. During some years they were obtained by nomination, and the
women chosen generally came from the cultured classes; but now all
appointments are thrown open to competition, and anyone within the
limits of age (18 to 20) who can pass the not very severe entrance
examination is eligible for a vacancy. There is considerable demand
for these posts, and it is considered a very small competition if
there are only two qualified candidates for every vacancy. The hours
of attendance in the office are in most cases seven daily, and a
month’s holiday is allowed. Salaries commence at £65 a year, rising
by an annual increase of £3 to £80 in the lowest class. There are
possibilities however of much higher salaries, as the accompanying
table (drawn from the _Civil Service Competitor_) of numbers and
salaries of the female staff at the General Post-office, London, shows--
1 Superintendent £250 by £15 to £400
2 ” 215 ” 15 ” 400
3 Assistant Superintendents 200 ” 10 ” 240
2 ” 200 ” ”
18 Principal Clerks 140 ” 10 ” 190
11 ” 120 ” 10 ” 170
50 First class Clerks 105 ” 5 ” 130
51 ” 85 ” 5 ” 110
324 Second class Clerks 65 ” 3 ” 100
295 ” 65 ” 3 ” 80
=General Conditions.=--Work in the General Post Office is carried on
under pleasant conditions. The premises are good, and all reasonable
arrangements are made for the comfort of the clerks. Strict privacy
is enforced; the clerks never come in contact with the public; and,
the routine of the business once mastered, there is a regularity and
freedom from worry about Post-office work, which to certain natures
is probably attractive. A girl of fair education, but without the
special knowledge or aptitude necessary for the teaching profession,
may profitably turn her attention to Post-office work, in which the
defect of monotony is counterbalanced by regularity of employment and
the prospect of a pension in later life. Candidates must be unmarried
or widows, and must be duly qualified in respect of character and
health. They must further pass an examination in handwriting, spelling,
arithmetic, English composition, geography, and English history. A
periodical entitled the _Civil Service Competitor_ gives details as to
the changes which take place in the regulations from time to time.
=Sorterships.=--These posts are attached chiefly to the General Post
Office in London. Candidates must be “not less than four feet ten
inches in height without boots” (a very moderate requirement, surely),
and the limit of age is 15 to 18. An examination must be passed in
reading and copying badly-written manuscript, handwriting, spelling,
arithmetic (first four rules), and the geography of the United Kingdom.
Salaries begin at 12_s._ a week, rising by 1_s._ a week to 20_s._, with
prospect of promotion to the higher classes. The work chiefly consists,
as the title indicates, in sorting the papers of the department. Like
the clerkships just described, the occupation is regular and not
disagreeable. An advantage in a young girl’s beginning as a sorter
is that if she desires to qualify for a clerkship, she may, if she
has served for two years, secure an extension of age up to 25. Thus,
though she fail to pass the examination at the latest age allowable to
outsiders, she may try again, perhaps several times.
=Telegraph Learnerships.=--The privilege just mentioned is attached to
this department also, and appointments as counter-women are now usually
filled up from the ranks of the telegraph learners. A preliminary
examination must be passed in dictation, handwriting, and arithmetic
(first four rules), and successful candidates must attend a Post-office
Telegraph School (free) to learn the craft. The course usually takes
three months, but pupils who show no aptitude may be discharged. On
receiving a certificate from the school the telegraphist begins work
in a Post-office at a salary of 10_s._ a week, rising to 12_s._ and
14_s._, as she becomes capable of transmitting messages and taking
charge of an instrument; thence, if promoted, to 30_s._ or 38_s._
Supervisors may receive from £90 a year to £140. The age for admission
in London is 14 to 18, in the provinces 14 to 25.
=Counter-women.=--This is the only branch of Post-office work which
is carried on under the eyes of the general public, the workers
serving at the open counters of Post-offices, selling stamps, cashing
postal orders, and performing all the miscellaneous duties belonging
to a local office. Since the Government took over the management of
telegraphs counter-women have been of necessity chiefly recruited from
the telegraph learners. A second-class counter-woman receives from
12_s._ to 30_s._ a week; a first-class from 30_s._ to 38_s._
=Complaints against Women.=--It must be acknowledged that women have
not altogether distinguished themselves in this branch of employment.
Sir James Fergusson, when Postmaster-General, felt called upon to
issue a circular to Post-office clerks, with pointed reference to the
female clerks, recommending the practice of greater civility in their
dealings with the public; and the measure was regarded, I think, with
general satisfaction. In some commercial centres similar complaints
are made of the indifference and carelessness of the girls in charge
of the telephones, who do not seem to realise that important business
transactions are dependent upon their promptitude and attention. In a
large telephone office which I could name women have been replaced by
men to the unconcealed satisfaction of the subscribers. A newspaper
editor told me that he always found a great change for the better when
evening arrived, and women clerks were replaced by men. It would be
easy to make too much of these complaints, but they deserve to be noted
in considering the entry of women into new employments.
=Commerce.=--Leaving clerical work on one side, we may now turn to
the wide field of trade and commerce, and examine into the position
occupied by women. Here, as in most other departments, their place will
be found to be chiefly subordinate. Women rarely enter the higher and
more lucrative branches of trade and commerce, while they overcrowd
the lower ranks. Isolated cases may be quoted in which the control of
large capital is in the hands of women; and as land-owners and managers
of large estates they often take an important share in commercial
operations. We sometimes hear of women millowners and merchants; but
these positions are generally the result of accident rather than
choice, and women who have become capitalists by inheritance seldom
(except in the case of land) take any active share in the management of
their property. There are exceptions, however; and it is possible that
if a careful enquiry were made they would prove to be more numerous
than was supposed. In a recent lawsuit about a colliery the defendant,
a lady coalowner, was asked, “You never go down into the mine, I
suppose?” “Indeed I do,” was the reply. “I take the greatest interest
in my property, and I frequently go down into the mine.”
Englishwomen lag strangely behind American and French women in the
conduct of business enterprise, though whether from lack of talent or
opportunity is not clear. Probably they possess neither the talent
of the French nor the opportunity of the Americans. In retail trading
women take a much larger part, though here their operations, if on any
large scale, are generally confined to one or two trades, chiefly those
concerned with women’s dress and outfitting. Probably no great number
of women are engaged in these enterprises, but in the smaller kinds of
shopkeeping they are largely concerned. Very precarious much of this
work is. Any decent woman who has saved a little money thinks herself
qualified to open a shop and carry on business without preliminary
training. The usual result of such experiments is that capital dwindles
away before profits have begun to make their appearance. Women do not
always realise that the management of even a small business requires
knowledge, resource, and an unwearied attention to details.
=Trade as a Career.=--It is to be regretted that the daughters of
shopkeepers, particularly of the wealthier sort, do not more often
devote themselves to trade. Their position gives them unrivalled
opportunities of learning the business under agreeable conditions,
and they would gain thereby an independent position and an occupation
of great interest. As forewoman, cashier, buyer, or manager of a
department, a girl of superior education with an interest in the
well-being of the concern might do good service for the firm. The
majority of wealthy shopkeepers’ daughters however usually prefer to
dissociate themselves as far as possible from the industry which is
the source of their prosperity, while pushing their way into society
by its aid. _En révanche_ ladies of the aristocracy, secure of social
position, but lacking in means, have recently taken to retail trade;
and though not all the aristocratic millinery and dressmaking
establishments started a few years ago with a flourish of trumpets have
outlived the difficulties of early life, the fact that the attempt has
been made has contributed a good deal to change the attitude of society
towards retail trading as an occupation for women. A few thoughtful
parents, perceiving that such occupations as High School teaching offer
but a poor reward for the energies of cultivated women, are training
their daughters systematically for trade. The wisdom of such a course
deserves to be highly commended, for girls so prepared will enter upon
their work with every chance of success, and free from the ignorance
which perpetually clogs the steps of women’s enterprise. To parents
not themselves in business the matter may present some difficulties;
but for girls whose fathers are in trade, the means of training are
of course ready to hand. They will do well to get rid, as speedily as
may be, of the false sentiment which makes them despise a pleasant and
lucrative employment.
=Shop Assistants.=--When we come to the lower grades of employment, to
the work of shop assistants and book-keepers, the proportion quickly
alters, and the women far outnumber the men. There are unfortunately
no means of ascertaining the number of women so employed, but the
total number of both sexes in the retail trade is about one million,
and about four-fifths of the assistants in the drapery trade are
women. In other trades the proportion is not quite so high, and in the
grocery trade about nine-tenths are men. An account of the labour of
men and women in shops (for the two sexes cannot be separated in its
consideration) must, if truthfully given, be little else than a recital
of their grievances. There are, it is true, establishments where the
_employés_ are well paid and fairly treated, but their number is
small compared to those in which poor pay, ungenerous treatment, and
unhealthy surroundings are the lot of the shop assistant of either sex.
=Their Grievances.=--The chief points upon which complaints centre
are:--
(1) Capricious deductions from wages.
(2) Unfair forms of agreement.
(3) Long hours.
(4) Insanitary surroundings.
(5) Living in.
=Wages.=--First as to wages. We often hear it said that a young woman
serving in a shop is better paid than a governess; and it is true
that a young woman of business ability and good appearance engaged as
show-woman in a millinery or mantle department can earn from £200 to
£300 or even £400 a year--far more than women teachers, except in rare
cases, can dream of earning. But these are the plums of the profession,
and they are few and far between. The wages of shop assistants are
exceedingly variable, small shopkeepers only giving a few shillings a
week, the proprietors of large establishments being able to afford a
better wage. In the larger shops an entrance premium is often demanded,
or at least the assistant must serve for several months without wages.
Women assistants, for no apparent reason, receive considerably lower
wages than men. The former may earn from £10 to £25 a year with board
and lodging, the latter from £20 to £40.[7] Generally speaking the
wages of female shop assistants are estimated to be 33 per cent.
lower than those of male assistants. I have not been able to find any
reason for the difference beyond the willingness of women to take less
than men. It would be interesting to know whether there is any real
difference in efficiency between the sexes. I believe that in purely
manual occupations lack of efficiency is enough to account for women’s
lower wages; but in clerical and routine work the reason is not so
obvious.
[7] It is difficult to obtain an accurate estimate of the
average wages of women shop assistants. The figures in the text
were given me by the Secretary of the National Union of Shop
Assistants. Miss Collet (_Report to Labour Commission_, p. 86)
gives a table of salaries varying from £7 16_s._ to £75 per
annum. Probably about 10_s._ a week is the _average_ wage, but
many who have worked for some years earn, it would seem from
the table, about £1 a week, generally without board.
=Fines.=--The nominal wages of a shop assistant, however, whether high
or low to start with, are subject to serious deductions by the way.
Few large retail houses are free from a system of vexatious fines,
deducted nominally from premiums on sales. I have before me a fine-book
belonging to a large London house containing nearly a hundred rules,
to the breach of which fines varying from 6_d._ to 5_s._ are attached,
with threats of even worse penalties behind. Thus for standing on a
chair the fine is 6_d._; permitting customers to go unserved without
calling special attention of buyer or shopwalker, 1_s._; second offence
reported. Omission of particulars as to filling up duplicate forms
and returning change, at discretion up to 5_s._; for sending bad coin
to cashier, the loss to be made up, and 1_s._ fine as well. For not
having premiums credited on exchange or return of goods, fine 2_s._
6_d._, second offence dismissal. Wrong or insufficient address, 2_s._
6_d._, and so on through a dozen closely-printed pages, until one
wonders how human ingenuity could devise so many punishable offences.
In another book of rules, more moderate in dimensions, and animated by
a less vindictive spirit than the above, a fine of 6_d._ is levied for
taking wrong change, and only half the deficiency is charged when bad
coin is presented. Allowing a customer to go unserved without calling
the attention of the “buyer,” however, still incurs a fine of 1_s._
Regulations such as these sufficiently explain the over-eagerness of
shop assistants to sell, which is often so annoying to their customers.
The unhappy victims of the fine-book have no choice but to cajole or
worry the customer into buying, since their very livelihood depends
upon success. Where such minute attention to details is necessary as
in shop work, fines may be to some extent a necessary evil; but there
can hardly be sufficient reason for the endless multiplication of petty
exactions which an examination of fine-books reveals. One would gladly
see the system exchanged for some plan of profit-sharing which would
secure the co-operation of assistants by more agreeable means. It is
true that a bonus on purchases is sometimes given during the annual
sale, but this apparent boon is again accompanied by a liability to
fines which must detract considerably from its advantages.[8]
[8] Miss Collet (_Report, The Employment of Women_, p. 88)
quotes a witness who stated that her fines sometimes exceeded
her premiums. “Anyone,” added this witness, “who left the
counter on account of illness was fined for absence.”
=Agreements.=--On entering a situation shop assistants are often
obliged to sign agreements which place them practically at the mercy
of their employers. In some cases they agree to accept instant
dismissal if fault is found with their work or conduct, in which case
they bind themselves not to take action in a court of law. A girl may
thus be discharged at a moment’s notice, and find herself literally
in the streets,[9] The formation of a strong Trade Union among shop
assistants is probably the only measure that can avail to check such
injustice.
[9] Miss Collet (_ibid._ p. 88) states that “in the majority of
cases a moment’s notice [of dismissal] was the rule. No wages
are in the latter case paid in lieu of notice, and the only
provision to secure that they shall not be absolutely penniless
when they leave is the retention by the employer of the first
week or fortnight’s wages, which are paid to them on dismissal.
The matron of a home said that in one case a shop assistant
who came to her was unable to obtain even this from her former
employer. The power to dismiss at a moment’s notice is not
merely reserved for grave offences, but seems to be frequently
exercised on most trivial grounds,” and the examples given by
Miss Collet fully bear out the truth of the statement.
=Long Hours.=--The most trying feature of a shop assistant’s life,
however, is the long hours of labour. Upon this point agitation is at
present centred, and rightly, since the length of the working day is
not only an evil in itself, but renders the other ills which assistants
suffer more difficult to bear and less easy to remove. In order to
amend the conditions of their life assistants must have leisure to
combine, for nothing breaks the spirit like unceasing toil. At present,
as was pathetically remarked by a shop assistant, “counter and bed
is the common lot of most of us,” and energies enfeebled by a long
day’s work are unequal to grappling with the problem of reform. Both
sexes work under the same conditions; women keep the same long hours
as men; nor would they regard with approval special legislation in
their favour, fearing lest the indirect result of such legislation
should be to restrict their employment. How far such a result is really
probable it is not easy to say. The Secretary of the Early Closing
Association, giving evidence before the Select Committee on the Shop
Hours Regulation Bill (1892), expressed himself satisfied that the
limitation of women’s hours proposed by the Bill would not prejudice
their employment; but though the contention is probably correct as far
as the drapery trade is concerned, it is by no means certain that it
would hold good of other trades, and women cashiers and clerks would
certainly be replaced by men in shops where the latter are most largely
employed. On the other hand, the greater cheapness of women’s labour
might enable it to keep its place. It is probable, however, that in any
case the restriction would be used as an excuse for lowering women’s
wages still further.
The act of 1886 limited the hours of children employed in shops
to seventy-four; but as no provision was made for inspection to
enforce it, the act became a dead letter. The Act of 1892 extended
the benefits of restricted hours to “young persons,” but left the
appointment of inspectors optional. A few large towns are enforcing
the Act by appointing inspectors. As, with these exceptions, each
employer is free to do what seems right in his own eyes, shop hours
vary indefinitely, and it is impossible to give any figures that are
of universal application. An assistant giving evidence before the
Select Committee stated that in Chelsea, Fulham, and Hammersmith she
had worked from 88 to 90 hours a week, but in Holloway only 63½.
Other cases as bad, or even worse, might be cited. A representative
of the Early Closing Association estimated the average hours in the
southern and eastern districts of London at from 75 to 91 per week,
but I am inclined to think this estimate exaggerated.[10] London shops
in the poorer districts however are great sinners in the matter of
late hours. As a rule hours are shortest in the central districts of
large towns, since the exodus of the wealthier classes to the suburbs
as evening comes on renders it useless to keep shops open after six
or seven o’clock. Saturday afternoon’s holiday is gained in the same
manner. As we move towards the suburbs, and towards the working class
districts, the hours become longer, and on Saturday, instead of the
desired half holiday, toil is prolonged far into the evening, it may
be even till midnight. In Manchester, which is said to stand well on
the whole from the shop assistant’s point of view, the hours in the
central district are about 66 to 68 weekly, in some few cases 50 only,
and in the suburbs 80; but in many parts of the city much longer hours
are kept, and late Saturday night shopping prevails in the working
class districts. To some extent this is inevitable; but in a city like
Manchester, where the Saturday half-holiday is general, such extremely
late shop hours can hardly be necessary, and with regard to other
towns also the necessity of late hours for the shopping of the working
classes is probably much exaggerated. It is well known that so long as
shops are open customers will come, and if purchases could be made at
three o’clock in the morning, individuals would probably be found who
preferred that time to any other. The Select Committee of the House of
Commons on the Shop Hours Regulation Bill of 1888, reported that they
were “satisfied that the hours of shop assistants range in many places
as high as from eighty-four to eighty-five hours per week,” and were
further “convinced that such long hours must be generally injurious
and often ruinous to health, and that the same amount of business might
be compressed into a shorter space of time.” Eighty-five hours too, as
we have seen, are by no means the extreme limit of weekly work. It is a
common thing for shops opened at eight in the morning to be kept open
until nine o’clock at night; and what chance, it may be asked, has a
girl released at that hour after a long day’s toil of enjoying healthy
recreation? A rational life is impossible under such conditions.
[10] Miss Collet’s tables give 50 to 74 hours, exclusive of
meals, but no attempt is made to find the average hours. And,
as Miss Collet remarks, “those working long hours are most
inaccessible, from the very fact that they have no time to go
to social meetings, and have less courage to complain.” Miss
Orme gives the average hours in Welsh shops at 54¾ a week, the
highest being 62½ and the lowest 51½.
=Standing.=--The long hours of standing are of course apt to be
injurious to the health of women, and especially of young girls.
Physicians give evidence of diseases contracted in this manner, and the
report of the “Sanitary Commission” of the _Lancet_, though moderate
in expression, is sufficiently explicit upon this point.[11] It must
be remembered, however, that constitutions differ, and I have been
informed by a young woman who had served ten years in a shop (where,
however, short hours are kept) that while she herself had grown used to
the standing, her sister, serving in the same shop, was quite unable
to endure the fatigue, and had failed seriously in health. A few years
ago some well-meaning persons, urged on by the _Lancet_, exerted
themselves to get seats provided for shop assistants, and their efforts
were apparently successful. Subsequent investigations by the _Lancet_
commissioner, however, disclosed a serious flaw in the arrangements.
In one shop he found that although seats were provided anyone “found
idle” was fined 6_d._ “At another very large establishment,” reported
the commissioner, “which boasts of the seats it provides, anyone
found using them is reprimanded the first time, and dismissed on a
repetition of the offence.” The episode is instructive as showing how
impossible it is for outsiders to reform trade abuses. Shop assistants
must themselves combine for the removal of their grievances if any
improvement is to be effected. In the same way “consumers’ leagues,”
for the avoidance of late shopping or for boycotting shops where
sweating is carried on, are doomed beforehand to failure. Combination
among the workers, backed by judicious legislation, is the only sure
method of securing reform.[12]
[11] The Report of the Lady Assistant Commissioners fully
confirms the same opinion.
[12] An ingenious method in use in some Welsh towns deserves
notice. Shops which are kept open late are picketed by men
carrying cards, on which is printed, “You are requested to do
your shopping before 7 p.m.” Miss Orme had such a card handed
to her at Swansea, and on enquiry found that the agitation thus
raised by the National Union of Shop Assistants had been very
successful in shortening hours.
=Insanitary Conditions.=--An evil almost as great as the long hours
of labour is the insanitary condition of many shops. In large
establishments proper arrangements are usually made, though it often
happens that the building is draughty or ill-ventilated. But in small
shops there is sometimes no sanitary provision whatever, and assistants
must have recourse to the nearest public house, the only lavatory
available. Shops that are merely “fronts” have of course no offices
attached, and in those built on to private houses the proprietor often
reserves the house premises entirely for his own family. The abuse is a
crying one, and from its nature it is difficult to expose. Small shops
are also often close, ill-ventilated, and full of foul odours, though
perhaps women do not suffer from the latter cause as much as men, being
less employed in provision shops, pawnbrokers’, or fur shops. Women
cashiers, however, who are confined all day in the elevated boxes
rendered necessary by the rolling ball system of giving change, suffer
severely from the accumulation of gas and bad air towards the ceiling.
=Living-in.=--Another matter with regard to which discontent is rapidly
spreading is the system of compulsory “living-in,” which prevails
widely in drapery and large outfitting establishments. This custom
is, I believe, unknown in Scotland. A drapery firm in the North of
England, for example, employs 300 assistants of both sexes, and all are
obliged to live in the house provided by the employer. In shops where
“living-in” is compulsory board and lodging is usually valued at £40
per annum. It is a common complaint, however, among assistants that if
after some years’ service they obtain the privilege of living “out”
they only receive an allowance of £15 or £20 per annum. This statement
has been made over and over again, and its truth can hardly be doubted.
For the sum charged by the employer the inmates of a large house
ought to be comfortably fed and housed; but though in some cases the
arrangements are all that could be desired, yet against the majority
grave accusations are made with regard to over-crowding, bad food, and
uncomfortable household arrangements.[13] The bedroom accommodation is
said to be insufficient, and the furniture scanty; the food provided
is often poor, and sometimes uneatable. Sundry small filchings in
the shape of charges for blacking boots, use of piano and library,
are also strongly resented. There is seldom any provision for social
life, perhaps because there would be no time to enjoy it. Usually the
two sexes are lodged apart, but some boarding houses are apparently
mixed, for in one set of house rules it is stated that talking in the
dining-room during meals is “strictly prohibited,” that the young men
are not permitted to enter the young ladies’ sitting-room, and visitors
are not allowed in the house. At most establishments only twenty
minutes or half-an-hour is allowed for dinner, and the assistants are
liable to be called off if required in the shop. On this system meals
must be simply bolted, to the no small injury of the digestion; and it
is not surprising that dyspeptic derangement is a common ailment of
shop assistants.
[13] The Lady Commissioners’ reports are full of these
complaints.
=Sundays.=--When Sunday comes round a diametrically opposite policy is
followed, and after being kept in close confinement during six days of
the week the unhappy assistant finds himself or herself put outside
the door on the seventh. Either the boarders are given to understand
that their presence is not desired within doors, or else no meals are
provided, and the assistants are left to shift for themselves as best
they may. No doubt the best-conducted houses are careful of their
assistants’ comfort on Sundays. Extreme cases, in which the assistants
are absolutely shut out, are probably rare; but some are known to
exist, and the tendency to make Sunday an uncomfortable day for those
who remain indoors appears to be pretty general. The disastrous
consequences of throwing female assistants--often mere girls--upon
their own resources on the day in the week when respectable means of
shelter or refreshment are least accessible can easily be imagined.
Here again a strong Trade Union seems to afford the only possible
chance of dealing with the evil. The stress of competition is ever at
work, driving employers to diminish their expenses in every possible
way in order to sell their wares at the cheapest rate; and it is so
easy to effect the needful economies out of the domestic establishment
of their assistants. It will be readily perceived too that the system
of compulsory “living-in” places the assistants more completely in the
power of their employers than is desirable for any body of workers, and
the assistants themselves do not hesitate to affirm that this is the
chief cause of its maintenance. Incidentally also it disfranchises the
men, who are not able to claim even the lodgers’ franchise. Attempts
are made in some places by philanthropic societies to provide homes
for girls employed in shops where living-in is not compulsory. These
may be useful in some cases, but their usual defect is a too maternal
government, which the girls resent.
=Personal Narratives.=--In support of what has been here stated as to
the general conditions of shop work, I may add some particulars gleaned
from one or two lady shop assistants who have been kind enough to tell
me frankly their experience. Both are now employed in shops with whose
management they are perfectly content, but their previous experiences
were of a far less agreeable nature. Miss Smith served for some time
in a drapery establishment in a second-rate quarter of a large town.
The hours were from 9 a.m. to 9.30 p.m., and to 10, 10.30, or later on
Saturdays. No annual holidays were given; the assistants were supposed
to have one free day a month, but often they did not get it. An hour
was allowed for dinner, which the assistants had to provide either in
or out of the building. As my informant’s home was half an hour distant
she brought her own dinner, and thus was unable to have warm food. When
engaged in the millinery department she divided her time between the
showroom and the workroom, and was often kept until 12.30 on Saturday
night, or rather Sunday morning, finishing orders. Her sister had been
similarly employed in a small country town for eighteen months, during
most of which time the working hours were so long that from Monday
morning until Sunday morning she only left the counter for bed. “At the
end of the time,” added Miss Smith, “she was carried home in blankets,”
having broken down completely under the hard conditions of her life.
“Country shops,” remarked Miss Smith, “are the worst of all; the work
is never at an end.” Asked if she had ever found deficient sanitary
arrangements, she stated that in an otherwise well-managed shop the
housekeeper had at one time, from some whim, taken to locking the
lavatories, opening them only at certain intervals. The rebellion that
ensued, however, had forced her to relinquish the practice. Some small
shops, it was added, were “merely square rooms,” and were unprovided
with offices.
Miss Jones had had a varied experience. In her first situation--a
suburban shop, where she lived in the house--the hours were from 8.30
a.m. to 9.30 p.m., with the usual additional hours on Saturday. “I
always went straight to bed after my work,” she said, “for there was
only the kitchen to sit in, and one could not go out at that time of
night.” A large second-class shop in a provincial town was not much
better. The hours were from 8.30 a.m. to 8.30 p.m., twenty minutes
being allowed for dinner, and a quarter of an hour for tea. A week’s
holiday was given in summer. The assistants lived in the house; no
talking was allowed at meals; and if, as was not unnatural among a
gathering of young people of both sexes, the place of conversation was
supplied by giggling, the “governor” seated at the head of the table
growled his disapprobation. “Our only amusement was to kick each other
under the table to make one another laugh,” observed Miss Jones; “but
where I am now we talk as much as we like, and enjoy ourselves.” In the
first-named establishment there were many fines, in the house as well
as in the shop. Four girls slept in a bedroom, two in each bed; if the
gas was left lit after a certain hour, the room-mates were all fined
6_d._ a head, innocent and guilty alike.
My informants laid stress upon the time taken up by straightening
the shop after closing hours, an extra burden which is sometimes
unavoidable. In a shop which closed at 6.30 Miss Jones had sometimes
been busy “straightening” gloves (_i.e._ arranging them in their boxes
and sorting the sizes) till 10 o’clock or even later. At sale times
such extra work is frequent. Neither speaker objected to the system of
fines if reasonably administered, but they thought it hard to be fined
for not making a sale when the article demanded was actually not in
stock. About the pressure put upon assistants to effect sales they had
some amusing stories. On one occasion a buyer brought a lady customer
to the counter where Miss Jones was serving, with the request that she
would show her “furniture fringes,” adding in a low tone, “And see that
she gets them.” Miss Jones, who knew that furniture fringes were not in
the shop, was at her wits’ end. “I showed her everything I could think
of,” she said, “and kept her there until I saw the buyer move away,
when I whispered hastily, ‘We _haven’t got_ any furniture fringes,’ and
the lady took her departure. Fortunately the buyer forgot to ask me any
questions afterwards. Another time a lady asked for a kind of beaded
dress front which we did not keep; but because I let her go without
calling up the buyer I was fined 2_s._ 6_d._”
The details here given from personal experience amply bear out what
has been said about the difficulties and disagreeables of a shop
assistant’s life, and they may be multiplied _ad infinitum_ by anyone
who cares to make personal investigation into the subject.
=Warehouses.=--The conditions of life in warehouses are much the
same as in shops, but some of the special grievances of the latter
are absent. Fines, though not wholly unknown, are not customary, and
“living-in,” though practised to some extent, especially among London
city firms, is not general throughout the country. Women are much
employed in furriers’ and trimming warehouses. Wages are poor--often
only from 7_s._ to 10_s._ a week; but a good saleswoman in a wholesale
house may earn as much as £1 a week. Long hours, poor wages, and
insanitary conditions are the chief grievances of warehouse assistants,
and they are making common cause with workers in shops for their
removal.
=Combination among Assistants.=--Strenuous efforts are now being made
to secure combination among shop assistants, but the task is not
easy. Shop assistants are apt to regard such measures as suitable
only to artisans and labourers, failing to perceive that from lack
of combination they themselves are often much worse treated than the
labourers whose methods of self-defence they despise. No artisan would
think for a moment of enduring the conditions with regard to fines,
forms of agreement, and method of living, which are imposed upon shop
assistants, whose hours of labour are also, as I have shown, far beyond
those worked by factory “hands.”[14] The fear of dismissal is a more
real cause for hesitation; but if the union is carefully organised,
and causes of offence are avoided during its early days, there seems
no reason why this objection should not gradually disappear. There are
now in existence the “United Shop Assistants’ Union,” the “National
Union of Shop Assistants, Warehousemen, and Clerks,” with head-quarters
in London, and branches in most of the large towns, and the “National
Union of Clerks”; besides an outside society, the “Early Closing
Association,” which works for one special object--the shortening of
shop hours. The others are unions for mutual help and defence, and the
“National Union of Shop Assistants, Warehousemen, and Clerks,” which
has about 2,000 members, is constituted upon genuine Trade Union lines,
giving sick benefits and out-of-work pay upon a graduated scale for
payments of 1_s._ 2_d._ to 2_s._ a month.
The passing of the Shop Hours Regulation Act can hardly be expected
to effect any general improvement in shop hours; but if efficiently
carried out it should do something to shorten the working hours of
those for whom it is specially designed--children and young persons. It
is satisfactory to note that several towns are appointing inspectors,
without whose aid the Act would remain nugatory, and that a number of
women are among those appointed. It is highly improbable that public
opinion will rest content with such a very imperfect piece of work
as the Act of 1892; and before long we may expect to see the working
hours of all shop assistants limited by law. If the coming legislation
affects all shops alike (with necessary exceptions for special trades,
such as chemists), it is not likely to meet with strong opposition,
since it is the competition of one shopkeeper with another which forms
the chief obstacle to a voluntary change. Often the refusal of a single
shopkeeper prevents the adoption of early closing in a whole district.
If all are obliged to close no injury is done, and large employers
of labour gave evidence in this sense before the Select Committee.
Happily, in this case, the question admits of being considered upon
its own merits, and we need not fear the appearance of that familiar
hindrance to labour reform, the bugbear of foreign competition.
[14] Miss Collet’s tables of factory and shop hours (Report, p.
85) corroborate this statement.
ADDENDUM.
This chapter was written before the publication of the Blue Book
on “The Employment of Women,” which contains detailed and valuable
reports upon the work of shop assistants by Miss Orme and Miss Collet.
As the evidence given above is fully confirmed by the Commissioners’
Reports, I have left the chapter as it stood, with the addition of
a few foot-notes, as an independent contribution to the study of
the question. Those who wish to pursue the matter further may do so
profitably by reading the Reports in full. I cannot leave the subject,
however, without quoting Miss Collet’s impressive summary of the
effects of shop work and life upon the health of those employed (p. 88).
“The constant supervision of the shop walker, the patience and
politeness to be shown to the most trying customers, the difficulty of
telling the truth about the goods without incurring the displeasure
of the managers, the long standing, the close atmosphere even in
well-ventilated shops when crowded with customers, the short time for
meals, the care required to keep things in their right places and to
make out accounts correctly, the long evenings with gaslight, and the
liability to dismissal without warning or explained reason, all tend to
render the occupation of the shop assistants most trying to the nerves
and injurious to health.” And she adds: “It is a significant fact that
whereas large numbers of factory girls cannot be prevailed upon to give
up their factory work after marriage, the majority of shop assistants
look upon marriage as their one hope of relief, and would, as one girl
expressed it, ‘marry anybody to get out of the drapery business.’”