WGRA’s note at the foot of this page says it was removed from the old Wages Book in December 1941 (when I was 2 months old, and WW2 was going very badly) for placement in the Scrapbook. WGRA has added the note: “WGRA office boy at 5/- (5 shillings) per week June 1893" (SO! now we know it was June 1893, not some other month, so WGRA did work a full year as office boy for his father’s brother, James Archer before going off to Holland to work for his mother’s brother Albert Reed for 6 years). And: “WGRA joined MJ Cowley and R Rippington as partner July1st 1919 in place of James Archer who retired as landlord”.
So, this is a transcription (started 20.7.17 on the Virgin train from Peterborough (12.48hrs) to Newcastle and continued the next day at Rowlands Gill):
Wages sheet for week-ending 17th March 1894 (the ‘Ides of March’):
12th March (1894):
Green (employee’s surname): 4 hours: £2.00 (so ten shillings, which equals 50 pence, per hour);
J. Birt (looks like): 15 shillings (= £15/20 = £0.75);
Trafford: to Sheffield & store (looks like): £1.11.8d (=£1+£11/20+£8/ 240) = £1.58;
Simms: £0.19.0d = 19 shillings = £0.95;
(plus): 1 hour: £0.0.4d = £0.01;
17th March (1894):
Boyles: £0.19.0d = 19 shillings = £0.95;
Green: £0.18.0d = 18 shillings = £0.90;
1 hour: £0.0.4d = £0.01;
(Comment from PBA: so, it looks as if some of the staff (eg Simms and Green mentioned above) were paid in 1894 at the rate of 4d (equals £4/240 = £1/60 = slightly less than £0.02 ie two new pence) per hour. )
Lawrance (sic, with an ‘a’): £0.18.0d = 18 shillings = £0.90 (= 90 new pence);
13+14+15+16+17. 3.1894: 9.5 hours: £0.3.2 d = 3 shillings and twopence = £0.16p (sixteen new pence) - which confirms the rate of pay as slightly less than two new pence per hour;
Austin: £0.17.0d = 17 shillings = £0.85p = 85 new pence;
Turner: £0.17.0d = 17 shillings = £0.85p = 85 new pence;
Blagmore: £0.16.0d = 16 shillings = £0.80p = 80 new pence;
Plus (presumably): 2 hours on 15/16th March: £0.0.8d = £8/240 = 3 new pence (approx)
(24.7.17): Thoughts: was this a complete wages sheet, i.e. listing most of the then current employees in March 1894? And if it was, then it gives some idea of the firm’s turnover 37 years after it was launched in 1857.
‘Hirmo’ (looks like but I can’t really read the name, and it doesn’t seem likely to be correct): £0.16.0d = 16 shillings = £0.80p = 80 new pence;
Plus: 1 hour on 14th March: 1 hour: £0.0.4d = £0.01;
Fleetwood: £0.16.0d = 16 shillings = £0.80p = 80 new pence;
Tyler: £0.17.0d = 17 shillings = £0.85p = 85 new pence;
Morgan: £0.12.0d = 12 shillings = £0.60p = 60 new pence;
Maddox: £0.14.0d = 14 shillings = £0.70p = 70 new pence;
Archer: £0.5.0d = 5 shillings = £0.25p = 25 new pence; so, this is WGR Archer, office boy, who, in March 1894 is 9 months into his 12-month stint at Archer Cowley & Co and is clearly paid 5 shillings a week, which, according to the inflation calculator at http://inflation.stephenmorley.org is worth £29.50 in 2017 which is obviously far below the 2017 minimum wage of: (see text pasted below):
From 1 April 2016, the government introduced a new mandatory national living wage (NLW) for workers aged 25 and above, initially set at £7.20 - a rise of 50p relative to the current National Minimum Wage (NMW) rate. That’s a £910 per annum increase in earnings for a full-time worker on the current NMW. The adult NMW rate is currently £6.70. This will continue to apply for those aged 21 to 24.
So, continuing with the wages sheet:
Carried over (to RHS of same page): £12.17.6d
(on RHS of same page):
16th and 17th March (1894):
Weller; 21¼ hours: £0.11.7.5 (11 shillings and sevenpence-halfpenny);
Bateman: 41½ hours: £1.0.9d (I have discovered how to do fractions on this MacBook - you have to go to ‘Enter Emogi and Symbols’ !!)
15th, 16th and 17th March:
Stevens: 3 days (at) 3/- (per day): £0.9.0d
(Note: this means presumably that employee Stevens was away for 3 days, perhaps accompanying a wagonload of furniture sent by road/rail/road (in the standard Archer Cowley manner of that time) to a customer’s new residence;
Trafford: 3 days (at) 2/8d (per day): £0.8.0d
(Note: presumably Trafford, like Stevens, has been away accompanying a wagonload of furniture, possibly working wtih Stevens on the same load of furniture);
OBSERVATION: It seems to me (PBA) a wonderful opportunity to have an insight into the day-to-day workings in the lives of Oxford’s working ‘Town’ population;
Green: 56½ hours: £1.8.3d
Price, F: 15/- ‘£0.15.0d;
Shaw, F: 16/- ‘£0.16.0d;
Rippington: £1.15.0d;
(Comment): so, in June 1894, Richard Rippington, who later became a partner with Messrs Archer and Cowley, and was bought out by WGRA in 1933, was still a wage-earner, rather than a partner;
Brought forward (from the other side of the page): £12.17.6d;
Total: £20.1.1½d
So, the total wages for the week ending 17th March 1894 was twenty pounds, one shilling, and a penny-halfpenny - which, according to the inflation calculator at:
http://inflation.stephenmorley.org
is the equivalant in 2017 of £2365.90 which corresponds (multiplication by 52) to an annual turnover of £123,026.80;
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