In the United States the first minimum-wage orders were those of the Oregon Industrial Commission, which fixed $8.64 as the legal weekly minimum for manufacturing establishments, and $9.25 for mercantile establishments, in the City of Portland. These rates were based upon the testimony of workers and employers gathered by the Oregon Consumers’ League. The testimony had shown that the prevailing wage for beginners in department stores was $3.00 a week; that nearly half of these girls and women employed were receiving less than $9.00, and that female clerks never received above $10.00 a week, no matter how long the term of their service. After learning from the employers what wages were actually paid, the Oregon investigators sought to determine the amount necessary to protect the health and morals of the women workers through an examination of market prices and a careful study of the actual expenditures of the workers. One hundred and sixteen department-store workers furnished the information for the following table of averages: Living at Home Adrift Rent $315.51 $118.00 Board 196.25 Carfare 31.20 23.42 Clothing 161.36 139.63 Laundry 24.28 16.27 Doctor and Dentist 29.23 23.82 Lodge and Church 12.19 9.72 Recreation 21.48 36.62 Books, etc. 10.11 6.69 ——————— ——————— Total Expenses $605.36 $570.42 The total wages received in the average: Total Wages $459.50 $480.57 ——————— ——————— Deficit $145.86 $89.85 These figures show that a majority of these women actually received less than it cost them to live. Investigations carried on in order to find how these women met the difference, disclosed that many of them, whether living at home or boarding, did extra chores in the morning before going to work and after work-hours in the evening. Others went into debt. And still others became “charity girls”—that is, they kept company with “gentlemen friends,” who came up for the balance, sometimes under promise of marriage when these “friends” should feel able to set up a household. That such promises are not always kept and that the girls quite often sink to lower levels, are facts well known.