The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-11-20
PARIS DEPARTMENT STORES.
System by Which the Employes Are Or

 System by Which the Employees Are Or- ganized, Lodged and Fed.
 The gretat department stores in Paris such as the Bon Marche, the Louvre and the Printemps, carry the organiza- ton of their employees to a point not dreamed of here, and have in opera ton extensive and costly plans for stimulating the interest and energy of the help in the business to the highest degree. The new employees receives at the start a salary of 40Of or about $50 | year, beside being lodged and fed, I and in addition a commission of from too per, cent, upon his sales so that | the lowest saleman rarely makes less than $160 year. A head of department, or buyer as he is known here, may easily make from $2,500 to $3,000 a year, and some of them exceed S5000. While these figuresare low compared with the $10,000 and 10000 salaries paid in New | York, they seem high when measured by | the scale of salaries that prevails in France. Thus the best paid among the higher employees receive larger salaries | than the president of sections in the council of state and generals of division. The average pay of an experienced salesman is about 4,000f., or $500 a year.
 The total number of employees at the | Bon Marche and the Louvre is about 5000 each, among whom are only about 400 women. In the Bon Marche and the Louvre lodging in the building pro- vided by the establishment is optional for employees of both sexes less than 21 years old; in the Printemps it is obliga- 1 tory. The Louvre has on the Avenue Rap a great building accommodating 250 male employees and not far from it is another where 100 girls are lodged. The Bon Marche furnishes similar ac- commodations. All these establishments are conducted under peculiarly string ent rules. The girls have parlor where entertainments are organized on Sun day and certain evenings of the week, but from which the other sexis excluded utterly. Not even a father or brother may be received there.
 All the employees receive their meals in the stores, except the highest, and these are permitted to eat outside, and receive an allowance of S00f year in the way of communication of rations
 Furthermore married employees are allowed to dine at home and receive a communication of If, a day The average cost of food is from 32 to 40 cents a day for eac employees The fare consists, at the Louvre, of one helping of meat, all
 the vegetables and bread that can be eaten, and a pint of claret. For dinner
 soup is added. At the Bon Marche the
 employees may ask for two helpings of
 meat. The average daily quantity oi food consumed in one of these estab- lishments includes 2,500 quarts of soup
 5000 pounds of bread, 2500 pounds o1
 meat ,1,200 pounds of fish, 800 pounds oi
 butter and ten barrels of wine. At the Louvre the kitchen force includes l.
 cooks and 80 walters. The cost of tho
 food exceeds 1000 000f. year.
 The great stores have a medical ser.
 vice for their employees, which includes
 an infirmary and outings in the coun.
 try or at the seashore. In addition when a man or woman completes sever , years of service at the Louvre, a sun
 of 1,O00f. is credited to him in the pen
 sion fund, and afterward 200f veal . up to his fiftieth year of service Th'
 savings fund of the Bon Marcht , amosunts now to 2,000, ,000f, and 200,000f
 is added annually, and in addition there , is a pension fund founded by Mime Boucicault, who built up this immens' business, which now amounts to 5000 OO0f-New York Sun.