Page 456 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

The Story of the C.W,S.
and those above or on the rate included 2,951 persons. Again,
the total separated almost equally into day workers and piece
workers—3,713 and 3,359 respectively. An average drawn over a
fair period of the wages paid to girls and women disclosed the
sum of £4,660 weekly, or, as divided by the total of workers of all
ages and groups, an individual average of 13s. 2d. every week.
The Committee further stated that they had approached the question
sympathetically and with a desire to strain any point in favour
of the scale. But they were obHged to consider the variety of
tasks and existing conditions, and the small margins at many
works between costs and selling prices. They also indicated a
possible disadvantage in the scale to the worker, as, "to be
equitable to employee and employer," it " should carry with it
a corresponding standard of efficiency." Already, and of its own
initiative, the Committee were giving real advantages. Some
5,400 C.W.S. female workers were employed 48 hours a week or less,
all of whom benefited in the ways described earher in this chapter.
Over and above this consideration the net cost of the scale to the
Society would be £35,000 a year, and the total cost, when new
demands arising from the scale were met, was expected to reach at
least £60,000 yearly. The Committee, therefore, " earnestly and
respectfully " asked the delegates not to tie their hands by this
binding resolution, but to leave them free to act " in the best and
truest interests of the Society and its employees."
The Committee were in a position not dissimilar to the one
occupied in the controversy over the creameries. The advocates of
the minimum wage were able to concentrate upon one consideration,
and that one only. Theirs was a bold and simple proposal,
easily comprehended. It appealed to the imagination, and the
moral claims made upon its behalf aroused enthusiasm. The C.W.S.
directorate, on the other hand, again could not move unencumbered.
Having accepted a minimum for men, the Society hardly might
refuse a minimum for women. And, standing by itself, unrelated
to the thousand facts of industrial Hfe, the highest figure of the
scale for women was unexceptionable. It meant little more than
a guaranteed standing room upon the earth, and every member of
the Committee would have been glad to see it in smooth operation.
But there came the rub. This was a rate which the C.W.S. manage-
ment had taken no part in fixing, and had regarded simply as a guide
to what co-operators considered desirable. For the executive to
thrust it upon their managers as a hard-and-fast demand would be
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