11/2d., and the sweater sometimes as much as 4s.

The competition of married women enters here, for shirt-making requires little skill and no capital; hence it can be undertaken, and often is, by married women, anxious to increase the little and irregular earnings of their husbands, and willing to work all day for whatever they can get.

Some of the worst cases brought before the Lords' Committee showed that a week's work of this kind brings in a net gain of from 3s.

to 5s.
It appears likely that few unmarried women or widows can undertake this work, because it does not suffice to afford a subsistence wage.

But if this is so, it must be remembered that the competition of married women has succeeded in underselling the unmarried women, who might otherwise have been able to obtain this work at a wage which would have supported life.