The 'Sweated Trades': Working life in the early 20th century
In 1909 the Trade Board Act introduced legally enforceable minimum wages in the UK for the first time. Trade Boards were established by the government to regulate wages in specific 'sweated' trades - industries with long working hours, poor working conditions and low pay, many of which relied on women workers.
We have digitised more than 2,000 documents about the Trade Boards and their attempts to regulate wages in early 20th century sweatshop industries. The sources include a wealth of information on employment practices in particular industries, working lives, cost of living, disability and employment, and attitudes towards state regulation. Most of the documents in this online collection are from the archives of the Trades Union Congress and were collected by J.J. Mallon, Secretary of the TUC's Trade Boards Advisory Council.
Campaigning against the 'sweated trades':
What were Trade Boards?
Background information about the creation and administration of the trade boards
The Sweated Industries Exhibition, 1906
The campaigning exhibition that launched the Anti-Sweating League and inspired the 1909 Trade Board Act
Source guides:
What could you buy with a working class wage?
Information about family budgets, consumer goods and the cost of living in the 1910s and 1920s.
Disability and the Trade Boards
Highlighting Trade Board sources on early 20th century disabled workers
I object!
Information about letters of objection to the minimum wages sent by employers, workers and trade associationsThe trades:
Food and drink:
The aerated waters trade
Trade Boards established in 1920 to cover workers involved in the manufacture of certain soft drinks
Confectionery & food preserving workers
Trade Boards established in 1914 to provide a guaranteed minimum wage for workers employed in the sugar confectionery and food preserving trades
Sale & delivery of milk
Milk Distributive Trade Boards were created in 1920 and regulated the wages of some employees in the dairy trade (including milkmen and women)
Metalworkers:
Brass & Metal Workers' Crusade
Crusade against 'sweated' labour and the employment of women as metal workers in the West Midlands
Chainmakers
Trade Board established in 1910, amidst strike action, to tackle low wages of women chainmakers in the Cradley Heath area
Stamped & pressed metal workers
Trade Board established in 1920 to provide a guaranteed minimum wage for some metal workers, mostly in and around Birmingham
Packaging:
Paper box makers
Trade Board established in 1910 to provide a guaranteed minimum wage for paper box workers (mostly women) in factories and at home
Tin box workers
Trade Board established in 1914 to provide a guaranteed minimum wage for tin box workers (mostly women) in a dangerous industry
Texiles and clothing:
Boot & shoe repairers
Trade Board established in 1919 to cover the boot and shoe repairing and bespoke hand-sewn trades
Button making & carding
Trade Board established in 1919 to cover the boot and shoe repairing and bespoke hand-sewn trades
Dressmakers
Trade Boards established in 1920 to cover the dressmaking and women's light clothing industries
Feather & artificial flower workers
Trade Board established in 1921 to cover manufacture of decorative feathers and artificial flowers for hats, etc.
Flax & hemp workers
Trade Board established in 1920 to provide a guaranteed minimum wage for textile workers in the flax and hemp industries
Fur trade workers
Trade Board established in 1919 to provide a guaranteed minimum wage for workers involved in the preparation of furs
Jute workers
Trade Board established in 1919 to provide a guaranteed minimum wage for textile workers in the jute industry, particularly around Dundee
Lace finishers
Trade Board established in 1910 to provide a guaranteed minimum wage for lace finishers (usually home workers) in the Nottingham area
Tailors (& tailoresses)
Trade Board established in 1911 to provide a guaranteed minimum wage for factory and home workers engaged in the manufacture of men's clothing
Wholesale mantle & costume workers
Trade Boards established in 1919-20 to provide a guaranteed minimum wage for workers who produced women's tailored suits and outer garments.
Other trades:
Drift net mending
Trade Board established in 1925 to provide a guaranteed minimum wage for beatsters or drift net menders, particularly in Norfolk and Suffolk
General waste materials reclamation
Trade Board established in 1920 to provide a guaranteed minimum wage for workers employed in the scrap metal, rag and waste paper trades.
Laundry workers
Trade Board established in 1919 to provide a guaranteed minimum wage for laundry workers and to try to stamp out sweatshop conditions in the industry