The Employments of Women: A Cyclopædia of Woman's WorkPenny, Virginia
General
The Employments of Women: A Cyclopædia of Woman's Work
Penny, Virginia
Women -- Employment
He pays boys he takes as apprentices, $2.25 a
week, from the first. He says a good lady polisher can earn $1 a day. He
pays his men from $10 to $15 a week, because they do more, and do it
better than women. In good seasons there is so much polishing to do that
experienced hands are very much hurried. The work is not confined to
seasons. It does not require long to learn to polish. Such work is
mostly done in New York, but considerable is done in the small towns
around. At S.'s we saw a girl polishing, who told us she received $1 a
day. She says there a girl spends six months learning. For three months
she receives nothing, after that $3 a week. At B.'s, the lathes are
moved by steam, but have treadles also, that the work may not cease when
the engine or machinery is out of order. Less and less watch work is
done by hand in the United States every year, owing no doubt to the
large number imported and the increased use of machinery. The work in
the business has fallen to European rates. A good polisher has been
earning $6 or $7 a week, but very few can do so now, and the prospect of
employment is poor for a learner. Some years ago he employed a lady at
$15 a week, for fitting movements to the case. The sister of a
watch-case maker and importer, in Brooklyn, told me that she worked at
the business some years ago, and received seventy-five cents apiece for
polishing watch cases--now but fifty cents is paid. The lady often
polished four cases in a day of ten hours, and so earned $3. In the
European countries, some years back, a man was paid $1 for making a
watch case; in the United States, $5. Prices have fallen greatly in the
United States for this kind of work, because the duty on imported goods
is so low. She says the work is not very clean, because the oil and
rouge get on your clothes and person. Everybody should wear working
clothes, if their labor is such as to soil them. The motion of the foot
in moving the lathe tries the back greatly. When the polishing is done
by steam, it is not so. As men and women are paid by the piece, women
receive as good wages. A smart person can learn to polish in a few days,
but to learn it thoroughly would require three months. Women are paid in
this country while learning, but in Europe they are not. In prosperous
times, work is good all the year. In summer, work is done for the North;
in winter, for the South. A locality in or near a large city is
preferable. Prices vary in different establishments. Usually, where the
best quality of work is done, the best prices are paid the work
people--where cheaper work is done, lower wages are paid. The usual
price paid to girls as polishers, when they are employed by the week, is
$6--a better remuneration for mechanical labor than most women receive.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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