GENERAL TRADES: (1) LAUNDRY WORK (2) CHARING

I COME now to a consideration of the condition of the workers in the more regular trades of Soho and the immediately surrounding districts.
    I take, first, the case of women. These may be divided roughly into two general classes, viz., skilled and unskilled. The former includes the workers in the various branches of the. dress trades (e.g., tailoresses, mantle-makers, dressmakers, etc.); while the latter includes the more casual and nondescript forms of labour (e.g., charing, laundry-work, * [-* I have included all laundry workers under this head, although some branches of the trade should, perhaps, be regarded as skilled labour.-] and general factory work [-*A large number of women find temporary employment in the busy seasons at Messrs. Crosse and Blackwell's, and other factories in Soho.-]).
    The condition of the workers in each of these classes is exceedingly unsatisfactory. Work is extremely intermittent, and for the most part, badly paid; competition is severe - in the case of the older  women, disastrous - while the hours of work (in the busy seasons especially) are often excessive.
    Take, for example, the case of the women employed [-80-] in laundries. In the West (speaking generally) laundry-work is almost exclusively a workshop industry; the high rents, and absence of proper accommodation, chiefly accounting for this. This fact undoubtedly tends to an improvement in the condition of the workers, and to a better organization of the trade generally, but even then the lot of the workers is extremely unsatisfactory. The hours of work (even as sanctioned by the Factory and Workshop Act of 1895* [-* The hours allowed to women-workers in laundries by the Act of 1895 are 14 per day (exclusive of meal hours and absence from work), or 60 hours per week. But the Act does not apply to small hand-laundries.-]) are excessive, the work itself extremely arduous and carried on under conditions that seriously injure the health of the workers (the temperature of the rooms being often above 80º), while the wages (leaving out of view the loss of work through slackness, which - owing to the "London season" - is necessarily frequent) arc by no means high. In the washing branch of the trade, for example, the women get from 2/6 to 2/9 per day; while ironers earn from 3/- to 3/6. The following wages were paid in two typical West End laundries.* [-*I quote from the Report of the Royal Commission on Labour-]
    "A." In this laundry washers were paid at the rate of 2/6 per day, best ironers 3/6 per day; the "preparer," 3/- per day; while shirt ironers were paid at the rate of 1/3 to 1/6 per dozen. The wages book showed that in one week (in the beginning of April)
        1 worker had earned 25/-
        5 workers had earned 20/- to 25/-
        2 workers had earned 18/- to 20/-
        12 workers had earned 15/- to 18/-
        13 workers had earned 12/- to 15/-
        6 workers had earned 10/- to 12/-
        11 workers had earned 8/- to 10/-
        7 workers had earned 6/- to 8/-
        6 workers had earned under 6/-
    "B." In this case children were employed as sorters at 6d. per day.
        The "taker-out (i.e., at back of ironing machine) received 1/- per day
        The head-washer received 3/- per day
        Ordinary washers received 2/6 per day
        The head-drier received 2/6 per day
        Packers received 2/- to 2/6  per day
        Sorters received 2/- to 2/6  per day
        Finery ironer received 3/- per day
        Shirt ironer received 3/- per day
    The latter (i.e., shirt ironers) were required to average 3 shirts and a collar per hour, for which the price charged to customers was 1/1.
    Overtime is generally paid for at the rate of 3d. per hour, but, frequently (when less than 3/- per day is earned), at the rate of  2d. per hour.
    Very much of the overtime (which is frequently prolonged until midnight)* [-* In the Report (1893) of H.M. Inspector of Factories cases were reported of workers who were employed for three days and three nights at a stretch.-]  is due to the inconsiderateness of the public, who make the most thoughtless and cruel demands. Many of the visitors at the West End hotels, for example, are in the habit of giving out work overnight, which has to be returned, ready for use, early next morning. Some of the hotels, however (e.g., the Grand, Metropole, and First Avenue), are now furnished with [-82-] private laundries, and this may modify, to some extent, the evils of overtime. It is matter for very serious regret, however, that the Act of 1895, which brought laundries (with certain notable exceptions) for the first time under the provisions of the Workshop and Factory Acts, did not more seriously curtail the legal hours of work.
    It is also difficult to understand why the smaller laundries (ie., hand-laundries) where the conditions of work are often much more injurious to the workers, should have been exempted from the provisions of the Act.* [-* All laundries in which the only persons employed are members of the same family dwelling on the premises with not more than two other persons, are exempted from the Act.-] In this class of laundry the hours of work are often outrageously excessive, while the rooms, being small, are invariably overcrowded and full of steam. The wages in hand-laundries, however, are remarkably uniform, averaging from 2/6 to 2/9 per day, with (generally) an allowance of beer. In these laundries the workers are mostly married women, whereas in steam-laundries the women are as a rule much younger.
    Of women, again, who pick up a precarious living by charing, there are a considerable number in Soho. The supply, indeed, in this, as in all forms of unskilled labour, is far in excess of the demand, and consequently wages, although fairly uniform, are often scandalously low. One case, for example-that of a woman who had to scrub and clean from half-past five in the morning until twelve at noon, for 8/2 a week - may be quoted as fairly representing the rate of pay of many of these casual workers, a large proportion of whom are married women with a bitter knowledge of the grip of hunger and rent.

This is an excerpt from the link on the previous post.

The wages listed above are in Pre-decimal monies (£. s. d.) [Pounds, shillings and pence].

2/6d = 12 1/2p in 'todays' money!