Here is what one woman, Ellen McLean, told a government commissioner about conditions in the New Brunswick cotton mill where she worked.
Q. In what department are you employed?
A. In the reeling-room.
Q. Are there many workers employed there?
A. There are about 20 workers.
Q. Are they mostly ladies?
A. Yes.
Q. About what would be the fair average wages a week in that room for skilled workers?
A. About $6.00 a week.
Q. How long must a person work at that particular branch before being an expert at it?
A. Well, about two or three years.
Q. What would they be able to earn when beginning in the reeling-room?
A. $1.50.
Q. And then their wages are advanced accordingly a they become more expert?
A. Yes.
Q. How many hours a day do you work?
A. Eleven and a half.
Q. Do you have any time out of that eleven and a half hours for meals?
A. Three-quarters of an hour for dinner.
Q. Do you work the same hours on Saturday as other days?
A. Half a day on Saturday.
Q. What would be the ages of the youngest girls you have known to work in that department?
A. nine years old.
Source: Royal Commission on the Relations of Capital and Labour in Canada (Ottawa: Queen's Printer, 1889)