100 Years Ago This Week: Jan. 16-23

From The Indianapolis News, Monday, January 18, 1915: More  than half of the women and girls employed in retail stores and in the garment factories in Indiana receive an average wage of less than $7.00 (2013: $158.88) a week, according to a Census Bureau bulletin. In stores, women and girls worked an average of 8¾ hours a day, five days a week, and nearly 12 hours on Saturday. The average weekly earnings for saleswomen, $7.86 (2013: $178.40); women in alteration work, $9.72 (2013: $220.62); and cash girls and bundle wrappers, $3.81 (2013: $86.48). Twenty stores paid commissions to saleswomen, but the commission system has not developed to a sufficient extent to affect materially the earnings of saleswomen as a whole. In the garment factories, the average weekly earnings for time and piece workers combined were $6.92 (2013: $157.07).