The Industrial Condition of Women and Girls in Honolulu: A Social StudyBlascoer, Frances
General
The Industrial Condition of Women and Girls in Honolulu: A Social Study
Blascoer, Frances
Child labor -- Hawaii -- Honolulu; Honolulu (Hawaii) -- Social conditions; Women -- Employment -- Hawaii -- Honolulu
The rooms are large, no artificial light is used, and there are no
basement salesrooms.
The working day commences at 7:45 in the morning and closes at 5 o’clock
in the afternoon. There is an hour’s allowance for lunch.
Three of the shops close at noon on Saturday for four months of the
year, and two at 1 o’clock during June, July and August. One shop has
reopened from 7 to 9 o’clock Saturday evenings, but the proprietor says
it has not paid and that he intends discontinuing the practice the first
of the year. There are no fines or penalties except censure or dismissal
for incompetence. There are rules, however, to insure courtesy to
customers and systematic methods of salesmanship. The lowest salary paid
beginners is $2.50. They are advanced with reasonable rapidity, one shop
raising wages from $2.50 to $5.00 for a year’s service in one instance;
and from $3.50 to $7.50 in seven months in another. One manager employs
none but experienced help and has no saleswoman earning less than $9.00.
Another has a minimum wage of $5.00, raising it to $6.00 after a month’s
trial. He says if a girl does not earn a $6.00 rate within a month he
does not wish to employ her.
A list of sixty-nine salaries verified as correct by employers and
employes is as follows:
WEEKLY.
1 at $ 3.50
1 at 4.00
5 at 5.00
2 at 6.00
5 at 7.00
1 at 7.50
10 at 8.00
2 at 9.00
8 at 10.00
1 at 11.00
5 at 12.00
3 at 12.50
9 at 15.00
4 at 20.00
1 at 25.00
1 at 40.00
MONTHLY.
2 at $ 75.00
1 at 85.00
3 at 100.00
3 at 125.00
Two weeks’ vacation with pay is given by three shops; and a week with
pay by the other two.
A number of the saleswomen are married. One who left her position when
she married went back to it after a long illness of her husband left
them in straitened circumstances, and she has remained at work ever
since. She has no children and says she “feels safer for her old age.”
Most of the girls say simply they are working to earn a living, and they
“like this way of doing it.”
The best paid employes are from “the coast”—some from New York—those
earning $15.00 or less a week being Honolulans.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account