as
preceded it, and that gives the truest exponent of all present
conditions. It is only necessary to add to it the summaries of the State
reports at other points, to see the aspect of the question as a whole;
and thus we are ready to consider by its aid the general rates of wages
and of the status of the trades of every nature in which women are now
engaged.

FOOTNOTES:

[21] Report for 1872, pp. 59-108.

[22] Report for 1875, pp. 67-112.

VI.

PRESENT WAGE-RATES IN THE UNITED STATES.

Under this heading it is proposed to include, not only the trades just
specified as coming under the investigations recorded in "Working-Women
in Large Cities," but also such data as can be gleaned from all the
labor reports which have given any attention to this phase of the labor
question. Naturally, then, we turn to the report of the Massachusetts
Bureau for 1881, the first statement of these points, and compare it
with the results obtained in the last report from Washington, as well as
with the returns from the various States where investigation of the
question has been made.

Exceptionally favorable conditions would seem to belong to the year in
which the report for 1884 appeared. The financial distress of 1877, with
its results, had passed. New industries of many orders had opened up for
women, and trade in all its forms called for workers and gave almost
constant employ, save in the few occupations which have a distinct
season, and oblige those engaged in them to divide their time between
two if a living is assured.

A distinction must at once be made in the definition of earnings. In
speaking of them, there are necessarily three designations,--wages,
earnings, and income. Wages represent the actual pay per week at the
time employed, with no reference to the number of weeks' employment
during the year. Earnings are the total receipts for any year from
wages. Thus, for example, a girl is paid $5 a week wages, and works
forty weeks of her year. Her earnings would then be for the year $200,
though her wages of $5 per week would indicate that she earned $260 a
year; while in fact her average weekly earnings would be for the whole
year $3.84. Income is her total receipts for the year from all sources:
wages, extra work, help from friends or from investments; in fact, any
receipts from which expenses can be paid.

In preparing the tables of these reports, the highest, the lowest, the
average, and the general average