London bricklayers’ wages – 1888

As skilled workers, bricklayers enjoyed a relatively good hourly rate of pay. But their take-home pay each week could vary depending on the time of year and the availability of work.

In the summer, when daylight permitted longer working days, a bricklayer in full-time employment could expect substantially more hours work – and more pay.

The 1888 wage rates for bricklayers in London assume that work was available. There would have been many weeks in which only a few hours’ work – or none at all – was possible.

The following extract is taken from Statistical Tables and Reports on Trade Unions (second report) (HMSO, 1888), and was in turn extracted by the Board of Trade from the annual report of the Operative Bricklayers Society.

Similar details are also provided in the report for 101 other towns in which the Operative Bricklayers Society had branches at the end of 1887.

Archives for the Operative Bricklayers Society can be found in the Modern Records Centre at Warwick University.

Operative Bricklayers wages in London - 1887
	Cease work on Saturday at o’clock	Rate of wages per hour	Rate of wages per day	No of hours worked per week during summer	No of hours worked per week during winter	Rate of wages during summer	Rate of wages during winter
London District (24 branches	12	9d	7s 1½d	52½	48	£1 19s 4½d	£1 16s 0d
Brentford	1	8½d	7s 1d	56½	51	£2 0s 0d	£1 16s 1½d
Bromley	1	9d	7s 6d	56½	51	£2 2s 4½d	£1 17s 10½d
Croydon	1	8½d	7s 1d	56½	51	£2 0s 0d	£1 16s 1½d
Ealing	1	8½d	7s 1d	56½	45	£2 0s 0d	£1 12s 3d
Penge	1	9	7s 6d	56½	48	£2 2s 4½d	£1 16s 0d
Richmond	1	8½d	7s 1d	56½	48½	£2 0s 0d	£1 14s 4d
Twickenham	1	8½d	7s 1d	56½	50½	£2 0s 0d	£1 15s 9d
Tottenham	12	9	7s 6d	56½	47	£2 1s 7½d	£1 15s 3d
Tooting	12	9	7s 6d	56½	47	£2 1s 7½d	£1 15s 3d
Woolwich	1	8½d	7s 1d	56½	51	£2 0s 0d	£1 16s 1½d
Wimbledon	1	9	7s 6d	56½	48	£2 2s 4½d	£1 16s 0d
Source: Statistical Tables and Report on Trade Unions (second report) (HMSO 1888)