Wages

There would be deductions from the weekly wage of course like 8d (3½p) for gunpowder, for fuse and for candles (in a slate mine.) A Benefit Club was founded at Penrhyn as early as 1787, and was re founded in 1825. A quarryman paying 7d (3p) per month could claim sickness or accident benefit of 3/6 (17½p) per week. The owner would appoint the quarry doctor, whilst the agent and a manager would run the Benefit Club.

Due to the isolation of their quarries some owners supplied corn to their workers, and both Penrhyn and Dinorwig Quarries frequently did do at a loss. Other quarrying companies, such as at Cilgwyn, operated the truck system in its worst form. For instance, in 1823 £13-1-10 (£13.09) was spent on buying corn for the men, and the cost deducted from their wages. It was a system that lent itself to abuse by charging exorbitant prices.  All in all, the system was not operated in its most objectionable form in the North Wales Quarrying industry, unlike at the copper mining industry at Amlwch.

The average wage of a quarryman in 1845 was still only 15/- (75p) per week. Consequently, emigrating to the U.S.A. on ships sailing from Caernarfon and Porthaethwy was a regular occurrence, especially with the growth of the American Slate industry. Following the increased demand for slates during 1856-70, wages increased dramatically. By the 1860's a quarryman's wage was 4/3 (21p) per day. Indeed by 1870, a quarryman could earn as much as 5/6 (27½p) per day.

The quality of life enjoyed by a quarryman and his family in 1873 was described as simply wretched. At that time a four-week budget for two adults and five children was given as follows:

This was quoted as the least a family could live acceptably on, though many quarrymen existed on less than £3.00 per month. In 1865, an exceptional worker could only earn around £4.20 a month but the average wage by 1888 had increased to around £6.00 a month.

Work clothes

The clothes a quarryman wore were if anything more distinctive than his diet.  Corduroy trousers, hob-nailed boots and flat cap became his distinguishing dress in the twentieth century.  In the nineteenth century his normal dress was of white fustian [a course cloth made of cotton and flax]  with a thick flannel vest, a flannel shirt that was also lined, and flannel trousers which was usually of double thickness around his waist. He also wore a flannel or leather belt and, invariably, a bowler hat and carried an umbrella.

Health and death

Ill health also was a constant companion to them, mainly stomach disorders, hernias, haemorrhoids and respiratory diseases. Accidents occurred, but not as often as in coal mining. First aid was crude. Medical assistance often distant, whilst in most quarries the only ambulance was a stretcher. However, large quarries like Penrhyn, Dinorwig, Llechwedd and the Oakeley ran their own hospitals. The Oakeley hospital dated from 1848 and the Dinorwig Hospital opened in 1876, even though no doctor was appointed there until 1893.

The average age of death in 1893 at Blaenau Ffestiniog for those employed at the dressing sheds, where the slate dust was most heavy, was 47.9 years. The average age of death for engine drivers and plate layers in the quarry who were least exposed to dust was 60.3 years.  Labourers could expect to live till they were 45.3 years of age, while slate miners could only look forward to 48.1 years. In 1905, a widow was paid £200 on the death of her husband by accident at Penrhyn quarry.

The quarrymen were fully aware of how slate dust was killing them, and so did some doctors. However, Dr. R.H. Mills Roberts (1862-1935), who was quarry doctor at Dinorwig from 1893-1914, considered this occupation to be very healthy, and that slate dust did not exist at the Dinorwig Quarries to an injurious extent. Dr J. Bradley Hughes, doctor at the Penrhyn Quarry Hospital in 1922, went so far as to state:

The quarrymen of north Wales, unlike the miners in the coal industry, had to wait until 1979 for any compensation from the London government. It was only granted then because a general election was imminent. It was too late for the vast majority.