than $40 per month, and all but 9 of them less than $60 per month. The 377 female stenographers received somewhat higher wages. Only a seventh fell under $40, two thirds under $60, while 19 earned over $80. Most of the female clerical force employed by the Bell system received less than $500 per year. A few were paid more than $700. The Public Service Commission of the First District of New York[1] gives some excellent figures for the public utilities. The street railways employ[2] 423 male general office clerks, for whom the wage rates are under $500 per year in 8 per cent, of the cases, under $750 in a quarter of the cases, and under $1,000 in three quarters of the cases.[3] The wage rates for the gas and electric utilities are very similar. Among 1,515 male clerks and salesmen, half received less than $750, and nine tenths under $1,250. The ratio is similar for other clerical employees. For cashiers and bookkeepers the rate is higher.[4]
The pay of females doing clerical work in all of the New York public utilities is very much lower than that of males. The street railway general office clerks receive less than $750 in four fifths of the cases. Among the 252 clerks and salesmen employed by the gas and electric companies, 210 received less than $750, and 240 less than $1,000 a year. The rate for stenographers and typists is somewhat higher, one in ten of them receiving over $1,000 a year.
Little information is available dealing with the salaries of clerks in manufacturing industries. The Census reports the employment in the manufacturing industries of 576,356 "clerks and other subordinate salaried employees."[5] The total salaries paid to this group was $497,998,101.[6] The absence of any statement regarding sex invalidates any analysis of the figures.
The female clerical help employed in Washington, D. C, in de-
- ↑ Annual Report of the Public Service Commission of New York, First District, 1911, Volume II.
- ↑ For convenience of comparison, the figures given in the remainder of this study are stated, for the most part, in the following classification:
Per Cent, of Persons Receiving Wage Rates Per Year of Less Than
$250$500$750$1,000
The percentage basis is substituted for the numerical basis because it results in greater clearness. The classification per year rather than month, week, or day, is adopted, because the figures appearing in the reports as rates per hour, day, week and year, can be reduced to a rate per year more readily than to any other rate. Observe that these figures do not represent earnings per year. No allowance is made for unemployment in any of its forms. The rate per week or per month is multiplied by 52, or by 12, in order to give a year rate. The reduction of all of the figures to a common basis militates somewhat against their accuracy (as when a per hour rate is converted into a yearly rate), but adds greatly to their clearness.
- ↑ Ibid., p. 334.
- ↑ Ibid., pp. 272-74.
- ↑ Ibid., p. 129.
- ↑ General Report on Manufactures, Thirteenth Census, Volume VIII., p. 239.
