516 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 



many of them will obviously remain, some will no doubt be considerably modi- 

 fied, especially if the women concerned are sufficiently anxious to overcome 

 them and to enter and remain in industry on more equal terms with men. 

 Already within certain spheres some of the possibilities of women as organisers 

 and skilled workers have been demonstrated by numbers of trained and educated 

 women ; with further education and training and a greater freedom to work 

 out their own economic destiny it does not require a vivid imagination to picture 

 a state of things differing in many essentials from some of the realities recorded 

 above. 



V. — Wages. 



The question of wages is at once the most controveisial as well as the. most 

 complicated question of women's employment. Roughly, women receive 50 per 

 cent, to 75 per cent, of the wages paid to men in similar occupations. This at 

 first sight would appear an injustice. But the conditions must be thoroughly 

 understood before it is possible to dogmatise. A mere statement of the com- 

 parative wages of men and women without mention of the attendant circum- 

 stances is useless. And as far as this Report is concerned it has been difficult 

 in the time at our disposal to collect all the facts necessary for a thorough 

 consideration of the question. We can, however, indicate some of the chief 

 factors from the point of view of both employers and workpeople. 



Beasons given for Low Wagies of Woinen. 



Employers are apt to regard {he question of wages from one aspect only — 

 that of paying to the individual worker what in the employer's opinion he or 

 she is 'worth.' Men's Trade Unions and many of the women's organisations, 

 on the other hand, object to the payment to women of lower rates than those 

 paid to men for similar work. In some cases the policy of the men^on this 

 point is opposed to that of the women in the same industry — the men asking for 

 equal rates for men and women, and the women objecting on the ground that 

 this would lead to their effectual exclusion from the trade. '- 



The limitations to women's employability stated in the preceding section 

 must be borne in mind in a consideration of the question of wages, as they 

 have a direct bearing upon the question of women's output as compared with 

 men's. 



Though women are often paid the same piece rates as men when the work is 

 similar, they are very rarely paid the same time rates owing to their lesser output. 

 In addressing a deputation of women on the subject on April 13, 1915, Mr. 

 Runciman stated that in this matter the Government intended to follow the 

 practice usual in private industry — ' in replacing men by women we have 

 provided that under Government contracts the same piece rates are to be paid 

 for women as for men, and in regard to time rates no special conditions have 

 been laid down.' 



The reasons given by employers why the wages of women are lower than 

 those of men may be divided into two groups. The first group depends upon 

 those causes stated in Section IV. and resolve themselves briefly into 



1. Women can perform only the lighter processes. 



2. The output of women is less than that of men. 



3. Women are less skilled and experienced than men and are rai'ely willing 



to devote much time to training even if employers thought (as they rarely 

 do) that the short duration of their industrial life justified a long training. 



4. Some conditions, such as night work, are more objectionable in the case of 



women than of men. 



It should be remembered, however, that a man's wage in the earlier stages 

 of his industrial career is reckoned in two dimensions — the size of the wage 

 and the prospects of promotion and higher pay after a period of training or 

 experience. A youth often starts at a nominal wage and gives a part of his 



" See Report on Cotton Trade, p. 565. 



