Catterlin, B&W photo of Thomas Kay Woolen Mill Co. with workers standing and sitting in front of the building. Photograph of original Kay Mill built 1889., M3 1974-015-0007a
With over 70 years of history and a wide range of jobs it is difficult to give a simple answer to the questions of how many hours a week did workers work and how much did they get paid? The short answer is it varied considerably based on when the worker was working, what their job was, if they were male or female and how many orders the mill had on hand.
Explore the pay and work schedules of some workers at the Thomas Kay Woolen Mill below.
Walter M. Reid, 1928
Master Dyer$47.50 per week
The Dye House timebook for 1928 shows Reid making a flat rate of $47.50 per week and working nearly every day of the week. Pay periods in this book were every two weeks and it was not unusual for him to have worked 14 days in a pay period.
Walter Reid photo on front: WHC Collections 0079.001.0002
Elmer Peterson, 1929
Dyer40.5 Cents per day
The Dye House timebook in May 1929, shows Peterson working 90 hours in a two week period (9 hours per day) and receiving a paycheck of $36.45.
Photo of Elmer Peterson on front: WHC Collections M3 1992-117-0003
Case Studies
Dressing Department May 1947 and May 1948
The timebook entries from May 1947 and May 1948 provide an interesting overview of the variability of work hours and wage rates
FIRST PAY PERIOD
| May 1948 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| John Fisher | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 5 | |||
| C.A. Bordenmen | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 5 | |||
| Helen Bondell | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | |||||
| Marie Davis | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | ||||||||||
| May 1947 | |||||||||||||||
| John Fisher | 8 | 8 | |||||||||||||
| C.A. Brodenman | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | |||||||||||
| Helen Bondell | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
Second Pay Period
| May-48 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
| John Fisher | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | ||||||
| C.A. Bordenmen | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | ||||||
| Helen Bondell | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | ||||||
| Marie Davis | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | ||||||||||
| MEMORIAL DAY 1948 | ||||||||||||||||
| May-47 | ||||||||||||||||
| John Fisher | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | |||||||
| C.A. Brodenman | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | |||||||
| Helen Bondell | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | |||||||
Monthly Totals:
| May-48 | TOTAL HOURS | TOTAL PAY | TOTAL RATE |
| John Fisher | 173 | 263.7 | 1.524277 |
| C.A. Bordenmen | 173 | 235.15 | 1.359249 |
| Helen Bondell | 160 | 181.6 | 1.135 |
| Marie Davis | 88 | 99.88 | 1.135 |
| May-47 | |||
| John Fisher | 88 | 115.72 | 1.315 |
| C.A. Brodenman | 104 | 120.64 | 1.16 |
| Helen Bondell | 104 | 102.44 | 0.985 |
Observations:
–John Fisher worked over twice as many hours during the same period in 1948 as he did 1947. In fact, the first week of 1947 saw no work in the department. This hints at the nature of working in the mill. The the mill had orders, they could pay workers. When orders were down, workers might not come in to work.
–John Fisher and C.A. Brodenman worked significant overtime in several weeks in 1948 (13 hours over the standard 40 hour work week). This was notated and they were paid over their base pay rate during that period.
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