Jornada, salarios y costes laborales en el sector textil catalán (1891-1936)

Resumen

The article is a comparative study about the importance and the impact of the improvements in labour conditions within the Catalan textile industry during the first of the XXth century. The main advances considered are higher salaries and a reduction of working time, and both went in parallel in Spain. Therefore, better salaries should be analysed in a contradictory way: on the one hand, higher salaries dignified the working condicionts, but, on the other, in meant a very significant of labour costs because it took place in combination with a simultaneous reduction of working time. In comparison with other countries, the improvement of salaries was particulary relevant and fast. Hence Catalan textile employers and more dificulties than others when adapting their industries to the changes in the international textile market and suffered a loss of competitiveness.