The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1906-06-08
HOW MUCH CAN THE
BUSINESS GIRL EARN?

Copyright. 1905 by the Mcclure-Phillips ,
Company
BY SALLY CHAMBERLAIN.
The hyst and last question. which
confronts a girl who enters business
life Is How much money a I earn?"
She may be dependent on her daily eff
fort for her livelihood. b may need
only to make her own pin money, or
she may be working merely to kill h
monotony OF an idle existence. Still
h query remains the same and the
size of the weekly salary Is the most
emphatic II not the most important
phase OF her presence in the strenuous
grind OF the money making world.
To know how much money h can
earn q girl must first know what her
earning capacity is. This In nine cases
out Of ten controls the amount Of her
h stands in this regard, she will never
be sure Of the size of her income. I'm
Outstanding the extent Of her earning
capacity, however. 1t Is undoubtedly
true that she will be able to turn her
energies in one of at least three or four
same remuneration for her work.
Three things determine a GIRLS abil-
fly to make money. The first and our
dalton OF the three is health. The Sec
ond Is training, which is positively es-
sential to obtaining any kind Of a SAL
the third is spirit-the interest feigned
or genuine which a girl instills into her
work.
Health lies at the bottom OF all three
and the amount of money which a girl
can earn will always be dependent up
is always sitting down to rest cannot
hold her position very long as sales
woman in q store. The girl who is
continually having headaches will not
be retained many months as typewriter
or bookkeeper. and that girl has a
a salary who spends a month or two
of every year In a sick bed. The same
holds rte also of work in the field
of art, where vitality and strength are
indispensable to the girl from whom
originality is constantly demanded.
ming. the question Of salary resolves
itself finally and often very quickly into
a question of red ~corpuscles. A girl
nay have an ambition which leads her
into the highest field of active life, h
may have a mind capable Of the most
clever inventions or she may have a
talent which falls barely short of en-
ius. and If she a not the red blood
corpuscles and endurance to withstand
the round of daily difficulties and reg
ular day-in and day-out work. all her
other qualifications will count for
Of the race entirely or content herself
with a bare living wage.
Given good health. however. and a
girl is always assured Of her living ex-
penses. though the mount of her in
come will depend very largely upon the
second gauge of her earning capacity,
her business training. :
0n1y the GIRL who hao fried 70 oorp
a living without a training in some reg
ular line of work can realize the diff
culties of finding an opening in the up
to-date business world when she has
not a knowledge OF some particular
trade or profession at her finger tips.
The girl laden with letters of introduc-
ton and the girl starting out single
handed and alone both meet with the
same ~catechising, What do you know
how to do?" and the know" implies
She must be sure OF it.
What shall I train myself fn?" is
the cry of the girl who is to venture
into the money-fnaking world.
Her question is invariably answered
by the query, "How much money do
you want or need to earn?" And it is
a fair reply to the girls question, for,
lofty as may be her ambitions, she is
obliged to take the work which is open
to her, N this is seldom the work
which she most wants to do. Fer there
are but comparatively few fields of en-
ployment which assure certain salaries.
and these in nine hundred and ninety
nine out Of every thousand cases, have
to be used as stepping stones to realiz-
ing more exalted ambitions.
Among these assured salaries are
that OF the ~stenographer and book
keeper who need never carr less thar
Sc to So a week INC with a fair
amount Of experience she is sure OF
from $40 to SIS. The clerk behind the
counter can depend upon earning Sc to
$40 a week. The telephone girl is sure
of from Sc to s12. and so on through
the ranks of seamstress, milLner,
proofreader, nurse and teacher.
And what is the training which as
sures these average salaries? 1t is six
to ten months hard study for the
s~tenographer and bookkeeper, an APP
premiership of at least three months
and perhaps several years for the girl
behind the counter, and from ten to
twelve months of night duty for the
girl who answers the telephone.
With the larger salaries h training
is longer and harder, and the seam
stress and milliner have to plod along
q year, and perhaps two, turning out
plain sewing or doing the drudgery
part OF hat trimming before they can
expect the assured returns. The COM
Portable $l7 a week salary Of the
proofreader is allowed by the union
only after a girl has worked as copy
holder not less than two years. while
the teacher and nurse both carr their
salary Of $40 or s25 a week only after
three years OF the hardest kind of
schooling.
Beside the technical training and ex-
perience. h assured salaries are also
dependent upon two important traits
of character, promptness and accuracy,
A girl must be punctual. she must be
exact In her work n she must finish
her tasks in an allotted space OF time.
Every successfulA business office today
demands these three things Of every
employe, and the girl who would COM
pete with the great mass of business
women is obliged to make them an In
tegral part OF her business training.
Third and lastly, a girls personality
Is a strong factor in determining the
amount Of money she is able to earn.
She must keep her good natured side