The Statute of Labourers of 1351: what every trade was paid
After the Black Death there were far fewer hands, and the hands that were left asked for more. In 1351 Parliament answered with the Statute of Labourers: the wages of 1346 were to stand, every able man and woman was to work, and a labourer who took more could be fined or imprisoned, forty days for a first breach of his oath. These are the day rates the Statute wrote down, each without food or drink, with what a month of each is in today's gold and who on the ladder of the forty earned about the same.
Sources: umsl.edu · en.wikipedia.org
haymaker
1 penny a day for weeding or haymaking, without food.
About $250 a month in today's gold.
A farm labourer earned 2 times this. Nearest on the ladder of the forty: serf.
mower
5 pennies a day, or 5 an acre, for mowing meadows, without food.
About $1,300 a month in today's gold.
2.5 times a farm labourer's pay. Nearest on the ladder of the forty: court jester.
reaper in early August
2 pennies a day in the first week of August, without food.
About $510 a month in today's gold.
The farm labourer's own pay. Nearest on the ladder of the forty: farm labourer.
reaper in late August
3 pennies a day from the second week of August to its end, without food.
About $760 a month in today's gold.
1.5 times a farm labourer's pay. Nearest on the ladder of the forty: town labourer.
master carpenter
3 pennies a day from Easter to the end of September, without food.
About $760 a month in today's gold.
1.5 times a farm labourer's pay. Nearest on the ladder of the forty: town labourer.
carpenter
2 pennies a day from Easter to the end of September, without food.
About $510 a month in today's gold.
The farm labourer's own pay. Nearest on the ladder of the forty: farm labourer.
master mason
4 pennies a day for a master who cuts fine stone, from Easter to the end of September, without food.
About $1,000 a month in today's gold.
2 times a farm labourer's pay. Nearest on the ladder of the forty: longbowman.
mason
3 pennies a day from Easter to the end of September, without food.
About $760 a month in today's gold.
1.5 times a farm labourer's pay. Nearest on the ladder of the forty: town labourer.
mason's servant
1½ pennies a day from Easter to the end of September, without food.
About $380 a month in today's gold.
A farm labourer earned 1.3 times this. Nearest on the ladder of the forty: serf.
tiler
3 pennies a day from Easter to the end of September, without food.
About $760 a month in today's gold.
1.5 times a farm labourer's pay. Nearest on the ladder of the forty: town labourer.
tiler's boy
1½ pennies a day from Easter to the end of September, without food.
About $380 a month in today's gold.
A farm labourer earned 1.3 times this. Nearest on the ladder of the forty: serf.
thatcher
3 pennies a day for roofing in fern and straw, from Easter to the end of September, without food.
About $760 a month in today's gold.
1.5 times a farm labourer's pay. Nearest on the ladder of the forty: town labourer.
thatcher's boy
1½ pennies a day from Easter to the end of September, without food.
About $380 a month in today's gold.
A farm labourer earned 1.3 times this. Nearest on the ladder of the forty: serf.
plasterer
3 pennies a day, paid the same as the roofers, from Easter to the end of September, without food.
About $760 a month in today's gold.
1.5 times a farm labourer's pay. Nearest on the ladder of the forty: town labourer.
plasterer's boy
1½ pennies a day, paid the same as the roofers' boys, from Easter to the end of September, without food.
About $380 a month in today's gold.
A farm labourer earned 1.3 times this. Nearest on the ladder of the forty: serf.
Who is not here?
The Statute names more trades than it prices. Threshing was paid by the quarter of grain, not by the day; carters, ploughmen, shepherds, smiths, tailors and the servants hired by the year were held to what they took in 1346 with no figure written, and carriers by land and water the same. There is no day's pay to weigh, so they are not in the table.
In other words, the best-paid man in the Statute, the master mason, earned 2 times a farm labourer's pay, and a knight at war earned 8.6 times the master mason's.