In textile mills, the warping crew (of which this boy is one) were actually the second highest paid employees outside of management. The others were the weavers themselves, who were paid on a production scale.

Job wise, this boy is helping prepare the warp (yarn) as it is about to be wound on the warp roll itself. He has to make sure there are as few tangles as possible, and as few breaks of the strands. Given the man looking over him, I'd say that he's likely in training, with the man serving as his mentor/trainer.

wefting boy.

I think we may assume that the management-to-worker ratio depicted here is atypical.