New Wage Scales for Farm Workers

Farm labourers at Prebendal Farm, Bedford c.1910 [PU246/90]

Friday 17th May 1918:  Following a meeting of the Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire and Bedfordshire District  Wages Committee earlier this week, the following scales of payment for boys, girls and women working on farms in Bedfordshire are to be recommended to the Wages Board:

Boys aged 14 – 13 shillings for a working week of 54 hours in the summer and 48 hours in the winter, with overtime of 4 pence per hour

Boys aged 15  – 16 shillings per week with 6 pence per hour overtime

Boys aged 16  – 20 shillings per week with 7 pence per hour overtime

Boys aged 17  – 26 shillings per week with 8 pence per hour overtime

Able-bodied women aged over 18 – 4½ pence per hour [1]

Girls aged 16 and 17 – 4 pence per hour

Girls aged 14 and 15 – 3 pence per hour

Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 21st May 1918

[1] This is a similar rate to the wages recommended for 16 year old boys.