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The 'Sweated Trades': Working life in the early 20th century

Work in the sweated trades

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 'sweated' industries?

'Sweated trades', as defined at the beginning of the 20th century

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:

Trade Board A-Z

Alphabetical guide to the different Trade Boards

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 associations


The 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

Shirtmakers

Trade Board established in 1914 for the quintessential 'sweated trade'

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