WOMEN'S WAGES IN GOVERNMENT

...Women's Wages in Government Report Shows Unwarranted Disparity in Salaries of Men and Women, With Many Women Workers Denied a Living Wage By BELLE CASE LA FOLLETTE ACCORDING to a survey by the Women's Bureau of the Labor Department, of which Miss Mary Anderson is the able director, only ten women in the employ of the Government in the District of Columbia get more than $5,200 a year, and not more than 35 get $3,600 a year...

...the job and not on the sex of the workers...

...The report also shows an unwarranted disparity in Government wages for men and women for equal work...

...in fact, I presume there are, but I have known thousands of working women personally and I have known very few to whom such statements apply...

...THERE are over 8,500,000 gainfully em-A ployed women in the United States, and of these there are over 4,000,000 employed in the producing and distributing trades...

...And Mlary Anderson knows from long practical experience what wages and conditions of employment mean to the individual and the community...

...AS A result of the study of the conditions of women's employment and wages outside the Government in the United States generally, Miss Anderson says: "I am sorry to say that through the information we receive in our investigations we find that many women, far too many, are not'even receiving a living wage...

...A little more than one-third of all employes in the establishments reviewed in their entirety receive salaries of $1,860 and over...

...There may be some such girls...

...It states that: "Since it was the aim of the bureau to emphasize the opportunities for women in Government service, it was decided to review only records of women receiving salaries of $1,860 and over...

...that the women have family responsibilities in addition to the matter of pay— the work in the home being left almost entirely to the women to perform after a day's work in the factory...

...She was appointed director of the Women's Bureau in 1919 after having served as assistant for a period of time...

...The report includes the service records of women employed in the District of Columbia and receiving salaries of $1,860 and over per annum on or prior to April, 1925, as well as the record...

...Through our special investigations we have-studied men as well as women, so that we might have a basis for comparison, and what we have found is only a confirmation of what we already knew to be true—that a large majority of single women who live at home contribute all their earnings to their families...

...She became an organizer and leader of women in industry and a student of their problems...

...We want to see the girl made an efficient part of industry's machinery, but we also want to see that industry offers a future for the woman and is an institution which the girl car...

...One of the prevailing thoughts which has fostered this inequality of wages has been that men axe providers for the family and that women have only themselves to support, with their incomes supplemented sometimes by other members of the family when living at home...

...enter, and in which she can stay and prosper and grow...

...The thing of the first importance to know is that Women are an important factor and that they are a permanent factor in the industrial world...

...At the age of 16 she began working in the garment making industry of Chicago, and afterwards worked in the shoe industry for eighteen years...

...MISS Anderson points out that industrial standards are a community as well as an individual problem because there are no conditions of employment which do not reflect in community life...

...WE WHO have worked in the industrial field for many years see much to encourage us, but we know there is still much to be done...

...of all men employed in similar positions in the executive tstablishments...

...We have found, too...

...Of the 2,198 women receiving such salaries in these Government establishments, almost two-thirds were in clerical, typing and stenographic positions, 8 per cent were engaged in accounting and auditing and the remaining one-fourth were scheduled in administrative, professional, scientific and special postions, in no one branch of which was there so large a proportion as 5 per cent...

...We know that the girl who goes into the factories and workshops of the country does so to meet a real need...

...We also find that, in comparison to wages paid to men, women's wages are very far down the scale—so far, in fact, that there is little semblance of equality between the wages of men and women...

...We know that she is indispensable to industry and we know what so few people seem to recognize— that the girls of today, these flappers who are getting so much criticism and publicity, are most of them helping in the support of their families...

...Nearly 7 out of every 10 single women who live at home turn over every cent to their mothers or fathers, getting back for themselves only what can be spared after the family needs are met...

...About four out of every five women ir, industry are single and live at home...

...But in investigations made by the Women's bureau we have found that women are often providers for the family, and that they supplement the man's wages, while young girls more often than young boys take unopened pay envelopes home to their mothers...

...Miss Anderson's recent report affords food for serious thought and will doubtless stimulate widespiead discussion of the facts presented...

...2) per cent receiving such salaries were women and 79 per cent were men...

...For years, we have been hearing of the girl who works for pin money, who can afford to work for less than a living wage because shf lives at home, who spends her earnings on silk stockings and fur coats...

...The beginning has been made, and we find many places in many industries which are offering to women a living wage, hours short enough to allow for education and recreation after the day in the factory is over, working conditions which eliminate fatigue as far as possible, and an opportunity to advance in industry through opening up new activities for women, and through paying wages based or...

...Positions- paying salaries below $1,860 were touched upon only in connection with the discussion of beginning salaries...

...From the facts we have gathered we know that the future of the girl today is closely linked up with the conditions which prevail in the places where she works...

...These executive establishments employed 15,777 women and 15,906 men...