The salary of the buyer being determined by the profits of his department, it is to his advantage to keep the selling expense down to the lowest possible limit consistent with good business returns. This is especially true in the case of the number and compensation of help employed. By reducing his help to the least number he may thus reduce the cost of selling. The salary of each sales person in his department is charged against the selling expense of that department. Therefore the higher the salaries paid for securing the necessary efficiency the less the profit, and this fact naturally militates against the chance for promotion.

The wage of a saleswoman is determined, primarily, by the amount of her sales, which are carefully watched by the buyer, and if the sales of one fall below those of her neighbor she is told that she must sell more goods or "we shall have to fill your place with some other clerk." The saleswoman is in this way constantly nerved to highest endeavor, for not only does failure to sell mean loss of promotion, but she must keep up to the standard to maintain her present rank and wage. Various are the standards for wage used by department-store employers, and the relation between the salary and the sales varies in different departments in the same store. In general the salary is supposed to represent a certain percentage of the sales. One employer, the superintendent of one of the largest department stores in New York, says: "We expect our sales people to sell more than 25 times their salary." The saleswomen will tell you that it is the one who is insistent in asking for promotion, backed always by a good record, who succeeds, and that it is often necessary for a good saleswoman to threaten to leave or to say she has been offered more by a rival establishment to receive attention. Here, though, she is handicapped by the rule, written or unwritten, and prevailing in some stores, which prevents one establishment from engaging an employee of another until after she has severed her connection with her employer. The facts may be readily obtained, for her entire record must appear on the application blank and may be verified by the regular department-store detectives.

The table following shows the number and per cent of the women employees earning classified rates of pay weekly in the 26 department stores referred to. The employees are grouped as cash girls (including messengers, inspectors, bundle wrappers, and packers), saleswomen, office employees, and other employees (including buyers and assistant buyers). The table shows not only the rates of pay for the rank and file, but the proportion reaching the higher wage groups.

NUMBER AND PER CENT OF FEMALE EMPLOYEES IN DEPARTMENT AND OTHER RETAIL STORES IN NEW YORK, CHICAGO, AND PHILADELPHIA, BY CLASSIFIED WEEKLY RATES OF PAY

Scrutiny of the table will show that 76.1 per cent of all women employees were getting less than $10 a week; the actual average of this group, computed from the detailed data, was $6.13. The rate of pay for 57.5 per cent of all the women employees is less than $8 a week. The experience table above shows that an average of $8 is not reached by any group with an experience of less than 8 years and that 77.5 per cent of all were below this line. The apparent discrepancy is due largely to the fact that deductions for lost time reduce the number of higher paid employees in the experience table. On the other hand, 7.5 per cent receive $15 a week or over, and 2.9 per cent $20 a week or over. About half of these higher paid employees were in the saleswomen group. The average rate for all employees is $7.93, for saleswomen only it is $8.84. In the column headed "other employees" it appears that 55.9 per cent have a rate of $8 or more. But in this group are all the workroom employees whose employment is almost wholly seasonal and whose average earnings therefore would fall considerably below the rate of pay.

WOMEN IN FACTORIES, ETC.

By far the greater proportion of the women visited were those employed in mills, factories, and miscellaneous establishments, where the highest position to which a woman may aspire is that of forewoman, and this is reached by progressive stages, beginning possibly with that of floor or errand girl, but usually as operative. Of all the women visited engaged in this class of work only 2 per cent were

found to be forewomen and assistant forewomen. The average age of these was 28 years; average weekly earnings, $10.32, and average experience, 10 years. It does not necessarily follow that the best operatives become forewomen or assistant forewomen, for comparatively few have the requisite executive ability, nor, indeed, would all desire such position, for the earnings of the skilled operative are often much greater than those of the forewoman.

The importance of the young workers is here even more striking than in the stores. Of the 4,017 women employed in factories, mills, etc., included in this investigation whose ages were reported, 23.8 per cent were under 18 years of age and 55.8 per cent under 21. The factory women are thus considerably younger than those employed in stores, where only 40.7 per cent were found to be under 21. The factory women reporting weekly earnings are summarized by age and classified weekly earnings in the following table:

NUMBER AND PER CENT OF FEMALE WAGE-EARNERS IN FACTORIES, ETC., BY AGE AND CLASSIFIED WEEKLY EARNINGS.

With the factory women, as in the case of the store women, an increase in the weekly earnings in the higher age groups as compared with lower ones is apparent. Of the total factory women of all ages reporting weekly earnings 59.9 per cent earned $6 a week and over, but the proportion earning this amount increased from 6.4 per cent among those under 16 years to 27.1 per cent at 16 and 17 years, to 60.8 per cent at 18 to 20 years, to 74 per cent at 21 to 24 years, and to 79.7 per cent at 25 years and over.

See page 41.

The following table shows the variation of earnings according to experience in this class of workers, both home and adrift:

NUMBER, PER CENT, AND AVERAGE WEEKLY EARNINGS OF WOMEN IN FACTORIES, MILLS, AND MISCELLANEOUS INDUSTRIES, CLASSIFIED BY LENGTH OF EXPERIENCE.

The average experience of the 3,421 women for whom both experience and earnings were reported was 4.46 years. During the first year the average earnings are $4.62, the second year $5.34, reaching $8.48 after 10 years and $8.54 in the 16 to 20 year group. For the three groups, including those with an experience of 10 and under 21 years, the earnings averaged about $8.50, and these constituted 9.2 per cent of all the factory women reporting as to experience and earnings. These figures, then, indicate what factory employment holds out to the average woman who continues in it for from 10 to 20 years. Beyond that age the outlook is a constantly decreasing earning power.

EARNINGS OF STORE AND FACTORY WOMEN COMPARED.

A comparison of the foregoing table with the earlier one giving similar data in regard to women employed in stores, shows that, while the average earnings of the two classes are approximately the the same in the earlier years, the factory worker reaches practically her high level ($8.48) after about 10 years of work, the department store woman in the same time reaching $9.81 a week, and rising to her much higher maximum of $13.33 after an experience of 16 and under 21 years. Furthermore, individual employees, as buyers and as saleswomen reach far higher rates of pay. The factory worker's value to the establishment depends upon her dexterity in accomplishing the largest possible amount of satisfactory work, and this is achieved by continued repetition and usually does not require special mental effort. This wage level she maintains under the stress of long hours of labor, often in poorly ventilated workshops which are sometimes

also insanitary, where constant contact with things rather than with people, as with the saleswoman, tells upon her physical endurance. A loss of earning power is shown in the decreased wage after about 20 years of service-the same time at which the efficiency of the saleswoman begins to wane. With her, as with her sister in the department store, there is always the constant pressure for increase of wage if a time worker, or for increase of output if a piece worker. After 30 years the average wage falls still lower, but here again the number who remain after 30 years of service are so few that a general conclusion is not warranted.

None of the agents engaged in collecting the information upon which these statistics are based reported workers in any of the occupations within the range of the investigation, however long their experience, who had saved from their earnings enough to insure a living in case of disability or other cause necessitating retirement from business activity. It must always be borne in mind that the employees treated in this report are all in large cities, where rent and other expenses are necessarily high.

Recognizing that few workers are able to make provision for the future, from savings, many department stores as well as some of the larger manufacturing establishments have organized benefit associations, membership in which is usually compulsory. By the retention of a certain small part of the earnings each pay day a fund is created by the establishment, which may be drawn upon in case of sickness or death. The dues range from 10 to 25 cents per month, and in case of sickness the benefits may amount to one-half the salary, but limited usually to $5, and the weekly payments may be continued for six weeks if necessary. In case of death the benefits paid range from $25 to $100. Sometimes dues and benefits are higher, but the ratio is the same. The retention of the dues, when compulsory, has been complained of by the young and healthy, particularly because the benefits are not available until after from 3 to 6 months' employment in an establishment. There are many who have not steady work in one establishment, and to them it is considered a hardship.

Fewer establishments have a retirement fund. In one department store such a fund is being accumulated, but it is not available until it reaches $50,000. Membership is compulsory. According to the annual report for the second year of its existence it has reached about $15,000. The monthly dues are 15 cents. There are doubtless some who will benefit by it in future, but the pay rolls are constantly changing, and the figures collected in this investigation show that the average term of employment of the women in stores is 5.17 years.