The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1873-04-10
Woman's Wages.

So far as wages are fixed at all by mere
personal will, they are determined by
those who receive wages rather than by
those who pay them. But, in truth, wages
are not determined by either one class or
the other, but by certain conditions which
the economists call laws, but which laws
are susceptible of modification and adjust
ment when understood. The inevitable
tendency of oil wages is to gravitate to
the lowest point that will support life.
This Is just as true of mems wages as of
women's. The pressure which exists
everywhere to purchase at the lowest
price, to reduce cost, to obtain for a
minimum of expenditure the largest re-
suit ceaselessly presses down wages.
Every consumer in the land, every neces-
sity which exists for making little go far,
every instinct of economy, every force in
the community which operates for cheap
ness-all these are responsible for low
wages. Every man buys in the cheapest
market; newspaper bargains for paper
at the lowest figure for which it can be OBJ
tanned; it pays its printers no more than
they will consent to receive; it conducts
its business, Just as all other kinds of
business is conducted. upon the strictest
economical principles, aluminium of cost
consistent with the result designed. And
this uniform, steady, persistent, invaria-
BILE, unalterable pressure is what deter
mines wages. If one class of workmen
can be obtained who will consent to re-
ceive lower wages than another, they will
be employed. And where the conditions
are exactly equal-that is, where the SER
vice, the performance and the competition
are the same--A will receive the same
wages as B; women will have an equal
chance with men; blacks with whites or
| x.,,f ann,a tS a five
and recognized law. Women are paid Just
as much less than men as they will con-
sent to receive; lust exactly as Smith is paid
as much less than Brown as Smith, or
men of capacity on a par with Smith. will
accept. The whole and sole reason why
women of skill equal to that of men earn
less than men is because of sharper COM
petition between women-because of their
readiness to work for less and this readi-
ness. arising from MANY causes, is greatly
determined by the fact of how the wages
are to be spent-what the necessities of
the laborer are. If women as class can
live on lower wages than men do, then,
| in all those arenas of employment where
competition is most active they will be
sure to accept less. What people have to
do with their earnings is very control
ling factor in the rates of wages and, al
though it is quite true that some women
do have families to support, vet the fact
that as class female operators do not
have the same responsibilities that men
have brings down prices. What the ma
jority consents to receive enforces COM
plance on the minority. 1t is entirely
certain that wages are thus determined by
definite law. The pressure of society for
cheapness of production is so great
that wages gravitate to the lowest
point the laborer can accept and
live. Women, as class. can
accept less than men, and hence their wa
ges are lower. But men have adopted
methods to resist this pressure, and wo-
men have not. Men have organized into
trades unions, they have combined in as
sociatiOiis, they have created resistance
grind them to the earth. Cooperation