The commissioners of the New York State Bureau of Labor followed a
slightly different method. The returns are no less minute, but are given
under the heading of each trade, two hundred and forty-seven of which
were investigated. The wages of workwomen for the entire year run from
$3.50 to $4 a week, the general average not being given, though later
returns make it $5.85. This is, however, for skilled labor; and as a
vast proportion of women workers in New York City are engaged in sewing,
the poorest paid of all industries, we must accept the first figures as
nearer the truth. An expert on shirts receives as high as $12 a week,
in some cases $15; but in slop work, and under the sweating-system,
wages fall to $2.50 or $3 per week, and at times less. Mr. Peck found
cloakmakers working on the most expensive and perfectly finished
garments for 40 cents a day, a full day's pay being from 50 to 60
cents.[23] In other cases a day's work brought in but 25 cents, and
seventeen overalls of blue denim gave a return of 75 cents. Two and a
half cents each is paid for the making of boys' gingham waists, with
trimming on neck and sleeves, including the button-holes; and the women
who made these sat sixteen hours at the sewing-machine, with a result of
25 cents.[24]

This was for irregular work. Women employed on clothing in general,
working for reputable firms, receive from $4.50 to $6 per week. In the
tobacco manufacture, in which great numbers are employed, $9 is the
lowest actual earnings, and $20 the highest per week. In cigarettes, the
pay ranges from $4 to $15 per week. In dry-goods, with ten divisions of
employment,--cashiers, bundle-girls, saleswomen, floor-walkers,
seamstresses, cloakmakers, cash-girls, stock-girls, milliners, and
sewing-girls,--the lowest sum per week is $1.50, paid to cash-girls, and
the highest paid to floor-walkers, $16. On the east side of the city,
shop girls receive often as low as $3 per week; in a few cases
specified, $2.50 per week.[25]

In laundry-work, which includes several divisions, wages weekly range
from $7.50 to $10, though ironers of special excellence sometimes make
from $12 to $15 per week. In millinery the wages are from $6 to $7 per
week. In preserving and fruit-canning wages are from $3.50 to $10, the
average worker earning about $5 per week. Mr. Peck states that in
fashion trades the two distinct seasons bring the year's earnings to
about six months. "Learners" in the trades coming u