WAGES AND SALARIES 485 



ment, at least for transportation agencies, showing the classified in- 

 comes of the men higher up. 



IV. The Income of Clerks 



There seems to be no very good reason why clerks should be classed 

 among "salaried employees" rather than among "wage-earners," ex- 

 cept that they are paid by the month, Nevertheless, they are so classed 

 in virtually all of the reports, including the Census reports. For that 

 reason they are so treated in tliis study. 



The railroad industry may be passed by with a word of comment, 

 since its figures take the undesirable form of " averages." The general 

 oflSce clerks^^ (30,613 in all) receive average daily compensations of 

 $3.49. The uniformity of their compensation throughout the country 

 is astonishing, in view of the usual variation in wages between the east 

 and the west.^* In the Eastern District they received $2.56 ; Southern, 

 $2.39, and Western, $2.44. The other two groups of railway employees 

 whose services might be classed as clerical are station agents (15,309 

 in 1911), and telegraph operators and dispatchers (14,857 in 1911). 

 Their daily compensation is very uniform with that of the clerks. The 

 average for the United States was: station agents, $2.17, and operators 

 and dispatchers, $2.44. As in the ease of the clerks, the rate of com- 

 pensation varies only slightly from one part of the country to another. 

 Apparently the salary rates of men doing clerical work in the railroad 

 industry lie somewhere between $650 and $900 per year. 



The statistics furnished from the telephone industry are worthy of 

 some attention.^5 The total number of male clerks employed by the 

 Bell system was 2,650. Of this number, one tenth received less than 

 $40 per month, one third received less than $60, seven tenths received 

 less than $80, and 52, or about 5 per cent., were paid more than $125. 

 For the 257 male bookkeepers the facts show a slightly lower range. 

 Only three received over $125, while four fifths received less than $80. 

 Apparently in the telephone industry, as represented by the Bell inter- 

 ests, the bulk of the male clerical force is paid from $600 to $1,000 

 per year. 



The female employees of the Bell system who were engaged in the 

 work of clerical grades are compensated at a rate much lower than that 

 for males. A little more than half (1,015) of the 1,862 female clerks 

 were paid less than $40 per month, while nineteen twentieths were 

 paid less than $50. The female "operators," who comprise the great 

 bulk of telephone employees, report similar wages. The telephone 

 company, employing 16,229 operators, paid seven eighths of them less 



13 Statistics of Eailways, 1911, op. cit., pp. 26 and 28. 

 »*" Wages in the United States," Scott Nearing, New York, Maemillan 

 Co., 1911, Chapter 8. 



15 Investigation of Telephone Companies, op. cit., pp. 273-89. 



