Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-01-04
VOMEN,S WAGES.
Average Income os Business Women

Average Income os Business Women.
From the Phila. Ledger.
One reason why women might be easily
caught by fashy advertisements for investing
money is that they are very limited in oppor-
tunities for "makng it. 1t is natural for 9
woman who has to support herself to want to
make as much Of an income as possible. She
has to give up all ideas of the sheltered and
cushioned existence which shallow physioio-
gists and callow philosophers assign to her.
This may be what was intended primarily, but
Judging from both hens and lionesSes, i'll the
Wild and domestic animal creation, it is not.
Both of these feminine exempars have to
scratch for their own housekeeping. and not
even the Honess can remain lat home"
in the desert. but has to kill and
fetch her own marketing home. Any book or
essay which does not recognize that the women
of the nineteenth century, a large proportion of
them, have to work hard for their living mar
ried or single. might as well not be written at
all. we nave to deal with facts, and the fact
that even the genus eqstas the modern horse. no
longer treads as he did at first, but does his
hauling, racing and other hard or artistic work
on tip toe. and one toe at that shows that the
primary dispositions of nature have to be mod
lhed sometimes. and yet strength and beauty
grow no less, The horse does its work, and has
learned to move as Gaiy on its one toe as the
bear does on its well planted foot. So. saving
the sraceless comparison. the modern woman
| continues to do her new work with no neces-
safy loss OF gracetnIness. and with some added
strength. But the strength is not always l1nOwl-
edge.
AVERAGE INCOME OF BUSINESS WOMEN.
Setting apart the incomes Of writers and ply
scians artists. great millners and dressnakers
whose business rates are precisely the same as
that Of men in the same occupations, we find
fhn
at about nine hundred dollars a year A few
experts IN governn ent employ make more than
this. Some school teachers receive more. but
the great majority of even skilled women have
much less, SO that the nine hundred dollar
incomes are looked upon as the fortunate
lew. Seven dollars week is the salary of
many an experienced saleswoman in re-
tan stores, even for q forewoman who
directs what purchases shall be made,
and whose suggestions are valuable in the bust
ness. Fifteen dollars a week is high wages. and
i've dollars week the great army of shop girls
are glad to get. although, as they must dress
! well, 1t can do little more than pay for their
clothes, shoes. Car fares and lunches. The be-
| ginners are fortunate to start with the highest
point of the cash-girls' wages, three dollars a
week. Sewing machine operators. fue work
women. can make nine dollars week at their
work that kills. sometimes ten dollars. but this
| does not usually last all the year round Much
lower wages than this are accepted by the
ing machine work. see that all fastenings OF
thread are secure, sew on buttons. &C. by
patent irOners, who are paid BY the piece, and
outside of Troy, N. Y, where they have learned
their own importance-have to be quick
workers to make more than seventy five cents a
| day.
, AS CLERKS, ROoKKEEPERs AND sTENoGRAPHERs
where a man would get just double for the same
work woman can make five, seven and eight
hundred dollars year. AS hotel clerks. in
deed. in one establishment the Palmer House
of Chicago. the head cierh-a woman-receiyes
| 81 ,OC0 year and board; the second clerk 5000
| year and board: the bookkeeper 5000 a year and
neutrality-suspicious. to at least $3.50 more This
| Is novelty in occupation as well as prices but
seems to work as well as it pays in this one
establishment. Perhaps the biography of the
model hotel clerk will be written OF some woman
| yeti
The salaries of telegraph operators, again. do
not depend on proficiency but sex. a woman
! as fresh hand. is paid S. per week rising from
| this to So $40 and Sl2, which last are excpl,-
| tionay high prices. paid to skllful operators
man. a fresh young fellow. gets $40 to SI3 a
week. or $40 to $50 mouth, and experienced
hands can command from go to 800 Thus the
highest average prices to a skilled woman tele-
grapher just touch the lowest figure OF the in
experienced young man.
| The city should make no difference i'm its sal
aries because the recipient is woman but the
| professors of the Boys High School receive on
the average higher salaries than the teachers of
| the Girls High School In Government en-
! pioy. in Mint, Custo:n-house and Washington
departments. with the exception above noted
of rarely skilled experts. transiators and others
1t is good pay that reaches the nine hundred
dollar point. or seycnty-ive dollars d month
his Is paid to women who are as skilled in all
matters of examining money. detecting false
weight and bad paper as any bank teller.
THE LIMIT OF TT.
Among employments that are not constant
but nearly so, the highly trained surgical nurse,
who gets from fifteen to twenty dollars a week.
with her board, is on a par with or superior to
the ladies of the mint and the government de-
partments generally. These are the highest
wages paid to an expert in nursing. whose Skill
must save life quite as much as the doctor him
self. The average wages for trained nurses
$40 week-reaily amount to much more as
| board is included. So the wages of dom.stics
count up at the years end much higher than
| those Of school teachers 1t is weIl-paid pri-
yate school teacher who gets as much as nine
hundred dollars year In fact one
thousand dollars year is the one limit
| that few women outside the professions OF
medicine. literature. OR art can ever hone to
| pass, If they reach it. Nine hundred dollars
| year then must be the limit of most women's
ambition out OF which to provide a pleasant
| home for themselves and those dependent OH
! them to lay by provisions for old age or broken
I iSeaitu II 10 imam CInerNiSp
| that specializing and small ventures are not
more frequent among women instead of the
great caution which distinguishes the most of
them in letting go Of their small surplus. 1t
would be the most natural thing in the world if
| they should he tempted to speculate Seems
that nine hundred and ninety-nine in a thous-
and of them at least can never hope to make
more than living in business while they are
Young and strong. But they do not appear to
be SO tiazzed as a rule. Except in California,
1 rIx.,.n oh,
where seasistreSses ana chainDermaids put their
wages into margins" and where there is
| something in the air that turns even house
keeping wives to 'stock operations and money
recklessness. the number of women who take
| snch ventures is absurdly small compared
/ to the number Of gullible men.
WINDOW DEIESSEflS.
The New Trade Of Arranging Shop
Front Windows.
| EpcY Tho Ncx Vo,l-