MILLINERY AS A TRDE FOR WOMEN 
 
 
stores. Data obtained from Boston pay rolls (Table 22) show 
55 per cent. (27) of the wholesale workers receiving less than 
$7 per week, 40 per cent. (53) of the department store mak- 
ers and 31 per cent. (9) of those employed in millinery stores 
and parlors. In Philadelphia the largest proportion of workers 
reporting a nominal wage of less than $7 per week was found 
among the employees of the two types of wholesale establish- 
ments (9 out of 14), the next largest (15 out of 28) among 
millinery store employees, and the smallest (1 out of 17) among 
department store workers 
  Workers are frequently absent from employment for various 
reasons, and their weekly wage is thus reduced, so that a nomi- 
nal weekly wage is merely an indication of the earning capacity 
of a millinery worker employed full time. It is impossible to 
ascertain from the pay rolls the reasons for absences, but these 
reductions in the weekly wages may fairly be ascribed to the 
workers, and not to the conditions of the trade. Only one pay 
roll, that of a small parlor, was obtained in which the wages of 
the workers were not docked for absence. Including the makers 
in this parlor, pay rolls were obtained from only 13 which did not 
show reductions. For the majority of the makers these reduc- 
tions averaged from 25 cents to $1 per week, but for 35 of the 
173 makers working 4 weeks or longer in one season, they varied 
from $1 to $2 or more. 
  By definition, the average weekly wage indicated the actual 
earning power of the worker. Tables 24 and 25 show that 57 
per cent. (100) of the total number of makers employed 4 weeks 
or more in one season received an average weekly wage of less 
than $7 per week, and 84 per cent. (146) of less than $9 per 
week. A comparison of the cumulative percentages of Tables 21 
and 24 shows that over 84 per cent. of the workers employed for a 
period of 4 weeks or more received an average wage of less than 
$9 per week, while over 84 per cent. of the total number of 
workers, regardless of time employed, received a imnana2 wage 
of less than $10 per week. 
  Adam Smith stated that wages vary for different occupations 
according to their "constancy or inconstancy of employment," 
that whatever a workman in a seasonal trade earns "while 
 
 
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