The wages paid beginners in the department stores are fair as compared
with other industries employing the same grade of help. Boys and girls
when they first enter employment receive from $3.50 to $7, depending
on the store where they get their first job. In addition to the salary
most department stores give bonuses or commissions through which the
members of the sales force may increase their compensation. The
Survey Staff worked out comparisons on the basis of data supplied by
the State Industrial Commission between the earnings of workers in
department store occupations and those in other industries. Diagram 3
shows graphically a comparison of the wages of women workers in six
different industries. An interesting point brought out by this graphic
comparison is that retail trade constitutes a much better field for
women's employment as compared with the great majority of positions
open to them in other lines than is commonly assumed to be the case.
This is brought out even more clearly in Table 15, which compares, on
a percentage basis, those who earn $12 a week and over, in all of the
industries of the city employing as many as 500 women in 1914.

[Illustration: Diagram 3.--Per cent of women earning each class of
weekly wages in each of six occupations]


TABLE 15.--PER CENT OF WOMEN EMPLOYEES OVER 18 YEARS OF AGE EARNING
$12 A WEEK AND OVER


Office employees, in retail and wholesale stores 31.8
Employees in women's clothing factories 22.5
Saleswomen in retail and wholesale stores 21.0