3.9
Employees in gas and electric fixtures concerns 3.2

If the data were for retail stores only and did not include wholesale
stores, then office work, which now stands at the head of the list,
would probably not make so good a showing, although the superiority
over the selling positions is, from the wage-earning standpoint, so
marked that there seems to be no escape from the conclusion that on
the whole women office workers are better paid than women in the sales
force. On the other hand the proportion of saleswomen earning $12 and
over is from nearly seven times as great to not far from twice as
great as it is in the factory industries, if we except the workers in
women's clothing factories, whose earnings per week are better than
those of the saleswomen.

With respect to the men employed on the sales force of the department
stores a somewhat different situation exists. In Diagram 4 a
comparison is made of the wages paid in sales positions with the wages
paid in clerical positions. Here it will be noted that men who sell
goods in retail and wholesale stores earn more on the average than men
occupying clerical positions, such as bookkeepers, stenographers, and
office clerks. This comparison does not include traveling salesmen. A
further comparison of the earnings of the men in stores with the
earnings of male workers (omitting office clerks) in the different
industries of the city employing the largest number of men is given in
Diagram 5, which shows the per cent in each industry earning $18 a
week and over.

[Illustration: Diagram 4.--Per cent of salesmen and of men clerical
workers in stores receiving each class of weekly wage]

In comparing wages in stores with those in the manufacturing
industries it must be not forgotten that the working day and week in
the larger stores is shorter than in most of the factories. Hence a
comparison of earnings on the basis of wage per hour would show a
still greater advantage in favor of both sales persons and clerical
workers.

[Illustration: Diagram 5.--Per cent of male workers in non-clerical
positions in six industries earning $18 per week and over]

REGULARITY OF EMPLOYMENT

In department store work and in nearly all branches of retail selling
there is a marked fluctuation in the number employed during the year.
Sales work in the department stores is seasonal in the sense that a
large number of extra sales women are taken on during the Christmas