The wages paid to these women workers in the Spitfire plant vary considerably. They may start at £3 a week for beginners learning a trade or for those doing the simplest type of work, Earnings of experienced women workers average about £6 weekly and rise as high as £8 or more in a few exceptional cases. Women, like the men, work eleven hours a day. For Sunday work they are paid double time. The factory is operating on a 24-hour basis, although the night shift isn't quite so long as the day. Wage rates for men are slightly higher in most cases than those for women, and skilled aircraft workmen may easily earn up to £15 a week on a piece-work basis.
Despite long working hours the work was obviously excellent among both men and women workers. Seeing that a large number of workers, particularly women, were wearing a pin in the shape of a miniature Spitfire, I questioned one, saying I supposed i badge given to workers in the factor: no," she replied, "it is just a pin w contributing to our factory's Spi Another woman worker whom I questioned admitted she found the work hard and long hours difficult, but said, "The work has got to be done and somebody's got to do it, so why shouldn't we? It is worth it if it helps win; and if we don't win, life wouldn't be worth while, so I guess that's all there is to it"
Factory officials admit that considerable time is lost each week through air-raids and raid warnings, specially during night shifts. One method of beating the bomber that is being used extensively is dispersal. Not only are factories widely scattered but a large number of machines formerly concentrated into this particular factory have been removed and are now doing the same work elsewhere. The parts they produce are then brought to the factory for assembling into a finished Spitfire.
Although the rate of production naturally remains secret, after seeing every stage in the manufacture from the arrival of raw material to the test flight of a completed plane equipped with its cannon, it is possible to state with confidence that Britain's Spitfires are being produced in big enough quantities to give an uncomfortably warm reception to a much larger force of Heinkels or Messerschmitts than has so far attempted a daylight air attack on Britain.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.