Proper forms of address and accurate starting salaries in Edwardian England and other miscellanery
Setting: London, UK circa 1904-1905
Research so far: Googled 'salaries for clerical workers, Edwardian England' and found this. It gave me median salaries, but not the range. Also, it doesn't give me a year-by-year overview, but rather looks at the salaries once every decade or so. And since my character is newly-hired, it's reasonable to presume he'd be earning considerably less than the median.
I have a father and son who have just been hired by a London bank. The son (aged 14) will be working as a messenger/errand boy. The father will be a clerk.
1. I was going to have the father's job be basically copying out documents by hand, but I'm seeing that typewriters and carbon paper existed at that point, so now I'm wondering how likely it would be that the bank would be using those, still going with handwritten copies, or both. (After all, the TV was invented in 1926; that doesn't mean everyone had one in their home by 1928.) I can go either way, as long as I know what it is.
2. What would a fair starting salary be for an inexperienced clerk? (Weekly and annually; I'm not so confident in my understanding of £sd to be able to do the math for myself). If it was common to be paid less during a probationary period on the understanding that there would be an increase after 3-6 months assuming the employee was kept on, how big a jump are we talking?
3. How would father and son be addressed, both by peers and subordinates? Would one be Mr. Smith and the other Master? Or would it just be the surname? And if it's just the surname, how would it be handled if both were present in the room?
Research so far: Googled 'salaries for clerical workers, Edwardian England' and found this. It gave me median salaries, but not the range. Also, it doesn't give me a year-by-year overview, but rather looks at the salaries once every decade or so. And since my character is newly-hired, it's reasonable to presume he'd be earning considerably less than the median.
I have a father and son who have just been hired by a London bank. The son (aged 14) will be working as a messenger/errand boy. The father will be a clerk.
1. I was going to have the father's job be basically copying out documents by hand, but I'm seeing that typewriters and carbon paper existed at that point, so now I'm wondering how likely it would be that the bank would be using those, still going with handwritten copies, or both. (After all, the TV was invented in 1926; that doesn't mean everyone had one in their home by 1928.) I can go either way, as long as I know what it is.
2. What would a fair starting salary be for an inexperienced clerk? (Weekly and annually; I'm not so confident in my understanding of £sd to be able to do the math for myself). If it was common to be paid less during a probationary period on the understanding that there would be an increase after 3-6 months assuming the employee was kept on, how big a jump are we talking?
3. How would father and son be addressed, both by peers and subordinates? Would one be Mr. Smith and the other Master? Or would it just be the surname? And if it's just the surname, how would it be handled if both were present in the room?