[7] It is difficult to obtain an accurate estimate of the average wages of women shop assistants. The figures in the text were given me by the Secretary of the National Union of Shop Assistants. Miss Collet (_Report to Labour Commission_, p. 86) gives a table of salaries varying from £7 16_s._ to £75 per annum. Probably about 10_s._ a week is the _average_ wage, but many who have worked for some years earn, it would seem from the table, about £1 a week, generally without board. =Fines.=--The nominal wages of a shop assistant, however, whether high or low to start with, are subject to serious deductions by the way. Few large retail houses are free from a system of vexatious fines, deducted nominally from premiums on sales. I have before me a fine-book belonging to a large London house containing nearly a hundred rules, to the breach of which fines varying from 6_d._ to 5_s._ are attached, with threats of even worse penalties behind. Thus for standing on a chair the fine is 6_d._; permitting customers to go unserved without calling special attention of buyer or shopwalker, 1_s._; second offence reported. Omission of particulars as to filling up duplicate forms and returning change, at discretion up to 5_s._; for sending bad coin to cashier, the loss to be made up, and 1_s._ fine as well. For not having premiums credited on exchange or return of goods, fine 2_s._ 6_d._, second offence dismissal. Wrong or insufficient address, 2_s._ 6_d._, and so on through a dozen closely-printed pages, until one wonders how human ingenuity could devise so many punishable offences. In another book of rules, more moderate in dimensions, and animated by a less vindictive spirit than the above, a fine of 6_d._ is levied for taking wrong change, and only half the deficiency is charged when bad coin is presented. Allowing a customer to go unserved without calling the attention of the “buyer,” however, still incurs a fine of 1_s._ Regulations such as these sufficiently explain the over-eagerness of shop assistants to sell, which is often so annoying to their customers. The unhappy victims of the fine-book have no choice but to cajole or worry the customer into buying, since their very livelihood depends upon success. Where such minute attention to details is necessary as in shop work, fines may be to some extent a necessary evil; but there can hardly be sufficient reason for the endless multiplication of petty exactions which an examination of fine-books reveals. One would gladly see the system exchanged for some plan of profit-sharing which would secure the co-operation of assistants by more agreeable means. It is true that a bonus on purchases is sometimes given during the annual sale, but this apparent boon is again accompanied by a liability to fines which must detract considerably from its advantages.[8]