Wages, Hours and General Condition of Female Labor in the City of Ottawa.

(Written for the Economic's Club of Ottawa University.)

Editors Note: The following article is being printed in memory of Virginia Loyd. Virginia was an active member of our society and will be gravely missed. Approximately three months before her death she gave me this article asking if I would like to use it in the Quarterly. I had laid it aside and forgotten about it until I ran across it while preparing this issue of the Quarterly.

["Ottawa Republican," 20 Jul 1891, p2c1]

Through the condition of female labor in this city is not an ideal one, we find that there exists a much more humane feeling than in larger cities. The work is easier and there are fewer hardships endured by the laborers, than are generally depicted in newspapers and magazines.

Of those consulted, a few complained of ill treatment, almost all spoke of kind employers, while underpaid laborers were uncommon. Some spoke of the pity abroad in the world for girls who were compelled to earn their living, and testified that such sympathy was rather misdirected. The lot of those who had poor health was felt to be a hard one, yet where there were health and strength, most were content, if not satisfied. All but one or two classes were making their present occupation a stepping stone to a higher.

First - Compositors.

Generally the hours are from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., from December to April, and from April to December, 7.a.m. to 6 p.m., though in places the hours were not so long. All have one hour for dinner and legal holidays alone are given.

Wages vary with experience. The highest we found was a dollar a day, the lowest fifty cents, the average is about five dollars a week.

The objections to the work were not many. One girl remarked of the monotonous life; all spoke of the closeness of the rooms, for which in some offices there was good reason and in July and August we imagine it is almost unbearable. The worst objection is, indeed, a serious one. Though the girls can stand or sit at their work, there is a constant stooping over the desk. This soon means round shoulders. One girl remarked, "Indeed, I never saw but one compositor who was not round shouldered, and she remained erect only by constant and special effort." Though this untiring exertion may have proven successful in one case, we all know that such efforts are generally futile.

This line of work was preferred, because the girls could lodge at home, and all evenings were unoccupied. There is no lifting or standing. All were content with wages received.

Second - General office work.

In some offices in the city we found girls whose duties were various. Some were copyists; others stenographers, typewriters, copyists and book-keepers combined. The hours per day were eight. The wages vary from fifteen to thirty dollars per month. Several of these girls spoke of the responsibility that rested upon them, and for this reason, felt their work was harder than any other for ladies, in the city. They worked long problems in partial payments, the least mistake causing the loss or gain of hundreds of dollars and perhaps they are not paid according to their labors and position.

Third - Clerks in dry goods stores.

Here again wages vary with experience. The highest found was fifty dollars a month, the lowest (though not actually paid) was five dollars offered to a person of no experience whatever. The lowest paid is twenty dollars, while the average is about thirty five.

The hours vary more than the wager, the greatest was eleven hours, the average about eight or nine. All are given an hour for dinner and for supper. Only legal holidays are given; if for a day or so a month, a clerk is necessarily absent, some proprietors do and others do not deduct from their wages.

Proprietors state that lady clerks are essential to the business. Some shoppers refuse to trade with a gentleman, while often a gentleman is forced to call a lady clerk to consult her taste. Some kinds of work a woman can not do, as arranging the display on the high shelves, and stocking some goods.

Few of the clerks preferred the work, but did it from necessity. While one of them remarked, "Yet it is a less monotonous life than is generally supposed, for we are constantly dealing with new faces and materials.

Those working eight hours a day practically have the evenings to themselves, but in places the time extends to nine o'clock most of the year, and these clerks average two evenings out of a month - not much recreation. The hardest work seemed to be putting up the stock, or pulling out the bottom bolt of goods; in fact, there is a great deal of lifting and standing. But above all this occupation tries the patience as much as teaching; the clerk remarked that there is nothing so irritating as waiting on the professional shoppers - of which species there seemed to be a number in town. They do not intend to buy, yet they must be shown everything, as if their bill would amount to hundreds of dollars.

Fourth - Teachers.

Little is necessary here, as the facts of teaching a re so very well known. Wages in the city are from the maximum sixty tot he minimum forty, the average being fifty a month. The wages are hardly in proportion to the difficulty fo the work, though the highest is paid those in the highest places. Six hours are spent in the school room, and all teachers have some extra work which must be accomplished outside of school hours. Women hold all the positions aside from the principal and assistant, probably for two reasons: Men have not the tact to govern children, and perhaps chose some more lucrative calling.

Fifth - Seamstresses.

This seems the least favored class we have touched yet; and perhaps from two reasons: First, there is greater competition, as there are so many following the trade - probably because there is less of the aspect of working for your living. Many a girl will willingly sew to make a little money, when she would look with contempt on a kitchen girl. Second, it is hard in this occupation, to work up to a point where you can demand decent wages. The average sewing girl gets fifty cents a day,a nd her dinner, while even the second class dressmaker makes no more than sixty cents. The stylish dressmaker, whose work is among the wealthiest, demanding from ten to twelve dollars for each dress we exclude from this class. Unless a girl takes a course in mantuamaking in some foreign city, and returning has enough to live on, until she can build up a trade at her own prices, she cannot possibly earn more. The hours are barbarous, ten or twelve long hourse straining the eyes and bending over a lapboard or machine. Yet no wage can be demanded until experience comes; and when it does come we find a worn out woman.

Sixth - Domestic servants.

We are quite astonished when we came to the field of domestic labor, to find existing such harmony be mistresses and servants. Either the discord between these two classes in generally overdrawn or Ottawa is an exception tot he rule. These servants we divide into two classes: Hotel and home servants.

In the first class the average wage received by the girls found in most of the hotels is five dollars per week. The first cook receives ten dollars, the second only five and one half, though she does most of the hard work. The dining room girls receive four dollars plus their aprons washed. Aside from their common duty, each has a special work, as counting and polishing the silver, charge of the table linen, and so forth. The chambermaid receives four and one half dollars. The hours are exceedingly confining; each servant has two hours one afternoon of a week and Sunday evenings as her own, the remainder of the Sabbath is devoted to hard labor.

The second class received two dollars and a half as the average wages, though the maximum is four dollars and the minimum two. The girls average less than eight hours a day. These servants are mostly foreigners - Swedes, Germans, Irish and a few colored.

The class working in hotels have much the hardest work - they labor ten or twelve horus each day - yet are not paid accordingly. Here we see that the observation so often made is true, the girls choose to work here, rather than in a family, because they prefer systemized work; again and mostly, because the spirit of the age influences them to rebel against submission to an individual will. Though the work is much harder, and during working hours their liberty is much more abridged, yet they are content for they have companions, while from the exclusive home circle the servant is ostracized, and has no companion.

With domestic servants, though the condition throughout the city may not be uniform, yet the variations cannot be great, for of a dozen homes, in all but one, the relations between employer and employed were found to be very harmonious. In a few cases where the family was large, wages were not paid according, and servants did not remain long, for they could get equal wages in other homes with only half as much labor. The servant supply is not equal t the demand - at least good servants cannot always be had. This is due, probably, to the stigma that formerly was placed upon the servant class, an idea which has not yet fully died out among the laboring class. Yet we found the mistresses were beginning to realize that household occupation is a profession or trade as much as any other calling and also if they want good service they must pay for it. They must choose between the expert and the drudge, and if they take the latter, they must not expect the china to remain whole, the tinware bright, or the door yard tidy. With domestic labor, as along all lines, progress has been made and the fendal custom of mere service must give way.

Seventh - Washerwomen.

Perhaps the hardest lot is that of the washerwomen. Driven by misfortune to earn their living, they are not prepared in any one line of work and taking this up from necessity, it proves to be a life work.

This class we divide into native whites, foreigners, and colored. The first class has the hardest time for various reasons. Strength is lacking; ambitions are higher than in either of the other classes; nor will they live as the colored do nine cases out of ten they were not brought up to work and they manage poorly. They depend largely upon machinery, are careless in the use of it, often do poor work, and hence are underpaid.

The second class, mostly Swedes in this city, have a hard life, yet not so pitiable as the first class. They have more strength, do better work in the same time and ask less for it. They use little machinery. One case we heard of was a sad one. It was of a German woman, who was not compelled to earn a living, but did several washings a week. She would have nothing to do with a wringer for they costs so much, besides were of no use. In a few years her wrists, by the mere wringing of clothes, were ruptured. Now she is disabled for life. The best wringers could be had for five dollars, yet few foreigners use them.

The colored do the work easily. They often grumble to be sure, yet more at the way they are treated than at the wages. They do the work less conscientiously, generally go to the home to labor, and if dinner some cast off garment is thrown in with the wages, they are happy.

Washing is probably the hardest and most degrading work; wages are low, but very uniform, hours of work with the household duties are from 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. The hardest work is drawing water, pumping being almost as bad. On rainy weeks the trials are numerous and quite vexatious. Again, every washerwoman has one or two families that hardly ever pay, and slip around it as only such people know how. The maximum number of washings found was fifteen, for which thirteen dollars was received. The ironings, we find, are often done by lamplight.

In closing it may be said, the city has favorable conditions for labor of all kinds. Workers have good homes, most are treated kindly, some indulgently. No cruelty is known and rarely are unjust demands made.

Mrs. F. E. Nickerson.