RECAPITULATION. ======================================================================== | BOSTON. |OTHER PARTS OF MASS.| OTHER STATES. |----------------+--------------------+---------------- | Number|Average | Number | Average | Number| Average | | Weekly | | Weekly | | Weekly | |Earnings| | Earnings | |Earnings |-------+--------+---------+----------+-------+-------- Government and | | | | | | professional | 7 | $5 57 | 5 | $6 40 | 10 | $6 28 Domestic and | | | | | | personal office | 178 | 5 94 | 27 | 5 33 | 21 | 4 69 Trade and | | | | | | transportation | 221 | 5 00 | 4 | 9 25 | 4 | 7 25 Manufactures and | | | | | | mechanical | | | | | | industries | 1,293 | 6 22 | 72 | 7 06 | 49 | 7 58 |-------+--------+---------+----------+-------+-------- All occupations | 1,699 | $6 03 | 108 | $6 68 | 84 | $6 69 ======================================================================== 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]