The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1884-08-18
LABOR STATISTICS.
Wages and Expenses of VVOrlxingmen in
massachusetts and Great Britain-BOs-
ton Working Girls


Col Carroll d. Wright, chief of the Massa-
chusetts Bureau Of Statistics of Labor, has
just completed his fifteenth annual report, and
the figures he presents will be found of much
value to workingmen as well as to students of
social problems Part gives the result of an
elaborate investigation into the condition OF
the working girls of Boston. Part II gives
comparative wages in 1883, In Massachusetts,
and Great Britain. Part III, the compare
tive wages in the two communities from 1860
to 1888; and Part " the comparative prices
and cost of living for the same period in the
two communities. Agents of the bureau
made extended inquiries in regard to the
twenty thousand working girls in Boston, and
the conclusions reached are based on actual in
formation obtained from 1882 persons. 1t is
found that American girls have almost wholly
disappeared from this class, and that their
places have been taken by those OF foreign par
entage or foreign born.
OF the 1882 the unmarried number 917, and
of that latter number 651 live at home. In all,
TOT of the ,032 live at home. Their ages run
up to rs e RS, hut $40 of them are 50 and IN
der, and 957 began work at % or under Their
average age is "A 81 years, and they have been
pretty steady workers, for their average of &C.
cupation is 178, with 443 years spent in each.
Native and foreign born show about the same
degree of peEmanency in keeping their situa-
tions. Over So per cent, or $50 OF them, have
to do their own homework and part or all of
their own sewing. They are home bodies, most
OF them, for only 155 live in lodging houses.
Only 90 of them are obliged to work over ten
hours day, and only So over the legal limit of
60 hours week. Some of them have hard
places and hard-hei rted employers, bat most
of them seem to be as well off in regard to
their social and business relations as the rest
of humanity. Nine of them are allowed only
fifteen minutes for dinner, but 773 have an
hour, and few have more than that. Only
233 Of them had vacation in ten years before
the investigation, and only 40 of these had
their pay continued. Their health record is
good. Only A are returned as "poor," and 10
as ''bad." Some of them are found to live in
verv disagreeable rooms and some of them ara
in very pleasant quarters. Bad ventilation
and crowding are the chief unsanitary condi-
lions in their workshops. Hardships are in
deed reported, but the great majority are 10
good health and in good surroundings. The
average weekly earnings in Boston were $6.O3.
Elsewhere in Massachusetts they were $e.68.
Col. Wright saws: sit must be trae that in
coming to Boston from other parts of the State
or from other States, working girls have not
secured an advanced wage, sufficient to coun-
balance their necessarily increased expenses"
In personal service, the wages average SOL
week. in trade, $571 week; and in manufac-
lures, $6.47. But the average number OF
weeks worked during the year is only 42.95, so
| that ''these earnings, distributed over the 81
weeks, give $4.91 as the average weekly earn
| ings of the working girls involved, for the
whole year" Adding what some may get
| from outside work, interest money, and so on,
| it is found that the average annual income
| from all sources is $5.17 week. The average
annual income is $269.07, and the expense is
| $26l.30, which leaves only SIT year 'tor
| everything outside of the absolute necesSaries
/ of life" Only 100 Of the 1882 saved any
| thing during the year, and they averaged
| $7215. A careful investigation of the moral
| condition of the girls was made, and fiat de-
| NAL is given to the charges against them as a
| class. The report says they ARE honest, in
| dustrious and virtuous, and are making an hero
| ic struggle against many obstacles, and in the
| face of peculiar temptations, to MAINTAIN rep
| utable lives"
The comparison of wages in 1883 in Massa-
| chusetts and Great Britain Is very full, and
these conclusions are reached: If both Massa-
| chusetts and Great Britain are credited with
| the average wages paid, tho wages in Massa-
| chusetts are higher in each of the twenty-four
l industries considered, the percentage being
| 1884. Taking the wages per hour as the basis,
/ the Massachusetts, average is higher in each of
the twenty-four industries, and the percentage
| in them all is 70.SS as total average. Aver
| aging the different data, Col. Wright states
tas the grand result of the compare tive week
| " wages investigation in Massachusetts and
| Great Britain for the year 1885, that the gener-
| al average weekly wage of the employees in "a
/ industries in Massachusetts, is more than 81 per
| cent higher than the general average weekly
| wage Of the employees in the same indus
| tries in Great Britain"
| In the third part, the tables are elaborate
| and the conclusion shown by the figures is
| that in the so industries considered from 1860
| to 1888, the general average weekly wage was
| 7540 per cent higher in Massachusetts than in
| Great Britain. In the manufacturing and me-
| chanical industries by themselves the general
| average weekly wage FROM 1860 to 1888, was
| 1902 per cent higher here than there. If a Pc
| Rod of nine years be taken by years, the per-
| centage is 70 81 in favor of Massachusetts. Av-
| eraeing these figures, the conclusion is "that
| the general average weekly wage OF the en-
| ployes in the industries considered, was 7,49
per cent higher in Massachusetts, than in
| Great Britain"
The treatment of comparative prices and
cost of living is also very thorough. In 1888
| groceries were 1918 per cent higher in Massa-
| chusetts than in Great Britain provisions
were 23.OS per cent higher there; fuel was
| 104.96 per cent higher here Dry goods were
Is 26Der cent higher here but medium and low
| grades used by workingmen. we're only 9 of
one per cent higher here. Boots, shoes and
slippers were 6259 per cent higher here, but in
| the lower grades only 1915 per cent higher
| Clothing averaged 1906, per cent higher here
| than there, but lower grades we're only q. &c
per cent higher, while higher grades we're
56.57 per cent higher. Rents averaged 80 81
per cent higher in Massachusetts. Here the
average price of one room week was 66 cents,
| So. SO month, and S34.3S year. In Great
Britain it was 50 cents week for one room,
| 81. 81 month, and $18.02 year. In Massa-
chusetts, in 1888, board and lodging for men
averaged $479 week, and for women 1913.
| Board alone was 1884 for men, and $3.50 for
women. Lodging alone was 1920 for men,
| and STAG for women. In Great Britain boar
| and lodging for men was So 81 week, and for
| women $237. Here the head Of the family
| averaged to earn 80.31 per cent more than
| there, and the average earnings OF the mem
bers of the family were 1870 per cent higher
here. The total family expenses were 4S Al
| per cent higher than in Great Britain
| than in Great Britain. The average Massa-
chusetts family spent $3.50 per cent OF It's in
| come, leaving 6 II surplus, while the family in
| Great Britain spent 1924 per cent o. its in
| come leaving a saving Of only 176 per cent.
| The proportion of expenses here was as fol-
| lows: Subsistence, 5176 per cent; clothing,
| IS 80; rent 1925; fuel, 80; suudries 1857.
| In Great Britain, the corresponding figures
| were: Subsistence, 56.45; clothing 1854 ;
| rent, 1866; fuel, 4.83; sundrles, 9.52. Compar-
| ing results, the conclusion is reached that on
any basis of yearly expenditure the prices of
articles entering into the cost OF living were,
on the average, 1929 per cent higher in Mas
| sachusetts in 1888, than in Great Britain; that
of this figure, IL 40 per cent was due to higher
| rents in Massachusetts,, leaving $50 per cent
| as indicated of the higher cost of living in
| Massachusetts, as compared with Great Bri-
tain, as regards the remaining elements of ex-
| pense." The conclusion of the whole investi-
| CATION is that the higher prices in Massacku-
sets are represented by $50 per cent; that in
| creased accommodations in housing and the
| general higher standard of living maintained
| by Massachusetts workingmen, as compared
| with the standard of living of workingmen in
| Great Britain is represented by 42,6l per cent
out of the total greater cost of 4S.41 per cent;
| or stated as direct ratio, the standard of liv-
| ing of Massachusetts, workingmen is to that of
| the workingmen of Great Britain as AZ is to 1.
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