Table 1.-WEEKLY EARNINGS OF WOMEN IN SELECTED OFFICE OCCUPATIONS, 1955

Source: U. S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Community Wage Surveys.

In clerical work, as in industrial work, the occupations requiring the greatest skill pay the best salaries. Reports indicate that the girl who hopes to reach the higher salary range in an office occupation should look first toward perfecting herself as a general stenographer, and then use her initiative and intelligence to develop the added versatility needed in a secretary's job; or she should aim at becoming an expert accounting clerk. Women in these two occupations receive higher average salaries than those in the other occupations listed here. Other clerical occupations with better pay, not shown in detail here and usually employing fewer women, are those of hand bookkeeper, class A bookkeeping-machine operator, and technical stenographer.

Lowest average earnings (except for office girls in some cities) are those of class B file clerks and class B typists, who are among the larger groups of women office workers. They include beginning clerical employees with less experience than those in the class A grade. The greatest ranges in average salaries among the cities included in this survey are for secretaries, stenographers, class A accounting clerks,

class A typists, class A file clerks. These are the occupations in which presumably a worker has the greatest opportunity to improve her level of skill, dependability, and general usefulness on the job. In the other clerical occupations the pay range is narrower.

Table 1 is not strictly comparable with the one published in the 1954 handbook, since the cities included are not identical. It is interesting to note, however, that in a period of about 2 years, earnings had advanced in every category shown. The smallest advance (50 cents a week) was in the low-average earnings of accounting clerks B, and the largest advance ($7.50) was in high-average earnings of secretaries. This is a good illustration of the spread of earnings in a single occupation, depending on (1) skills required and (2) demand and supply in the local job market.

Salaries of School Teachers

Over two-fifths of all professional women are school teachers. Median annual salaries of teachers in elementary schools and in junior and senior high schools in the school year 1954-55 are shown in table 2.

Table 2.-ANNUAL SALARIES OF TEACHERS,' BY TYPE OF SCHOOL, 1954-55

Source: National Education Association of the United States. Research Bulletin, April 1955.

3 3, 591

3, 751 4, 021

462

522

12

3 3, 465

3, 579

3, 848

623

2

3

328

388716-57- -6

The report of the National Education Association from which these data are taken covers a very large proportion of all employees in urban school systems throughout the country. Although there is no breakdown of salaries by sex, the figures represent salaries received by women, since nine-tenths of all elementary-school teachers and nearly half of all secondary-school teachers are women. Moreover, there is very little differential in the salaries of teachers on the basis of sex, although men teachers may receive higher salaries in some instances because of the subjects they teach, and because high-school teachers may be paid higher salaries than elementary-school teachers.

All school salaries are considerably higher in large cities than in small urban school districts. The NEA report shows that in districts with over 500,000 population, three-fourths of the senior-high and about one-half of the junior-high and elementary-school teachers received salaries of $5,000 or more. In smaller areas, such salaries were received by a considerably smaller proportion of the teachers, and in areas of under 10,000 population they were unusual. Only a very small proportion of teachers received less than $2,500, regardless of size of district or type of school.

Increasingly, school districts are adopting the single salary schedule: that is, the same schedule throughout an area for teachers with comparable training and experience, regardless of whether they teach in elementary or high school. This tends to narrow the salary differential between elementary-, junior-high-, and senior-high-school teachers. The greatest difference is in the largest districts (500,000 and over), where the median salary of senior-high-school teachers is over $900 more than that of junior-high-school teachers.

In a survey of 80 large cities reported by the Tax Foundation, Inc., salaries in the school year 1954-55 for teachers with the bachelor's degree ranged from $3,115 to $5,190. For those with the master's degree, the range was from $3,400 to $5,450.

Salaries of 2,595 beginning classroom teachers in urban school systems were reported by the National Educational Association for 195455. Median salaries received were $3,185 for women and $3,378 for men. Median salaries for men and women combined were $3,195 for elementary-school and $3,300 for secondary-school teachers.

Earnings of Professional Nurses

A fifth of all professional women are nurses; this is the secondlargest professional group. Half of the nurses are employed in hospitals or other institutions; these, with private-duty nurses, constitute two-thirds of all women in the profession. A very small proportion are public-health nurses, and others are in teaching or administrative work, or employed by industrial firms.

The beginning salaries of hospital general-duty nurses who worked full time through the year averaged $3,036 a year in 1955, according to a report of the monthly beginning salaries in almost 3,000 nonfederal hospitals, made annually by the American Hospital Association. These are not merely the cash salaries received, but include estimates for maintenance where such items as room, board, and laundry are provided. The monthly averages have increased by $39 (18 percent) since 1950, and by nearly $100 since 1945:

The 1955 survey shows average beginning salaries by size, type, and ownership of hospital and by size of locality and geographic area. In all these classifications, entrance salaries cover a considerably wider range currently than in 1945. The increase since 1945 in average beginning pay of general-duty nurses is about 63 percent in the general hospitals reported; it is considerably more in the specialized hospitals-77 percent in tuberculosis and 84 percent in mental hospitals. In seven of the nine geographic areas, the average beginning salaries (including maintenance) increased more than $90 from 1945 to 1955, and in the two remaining areas the increase was more than $80.

Table 3 gives the average gross monthly starting salaries in 1955 for general-duty nurses in nonfederal hospitals in the continental United States, according to region, size of hospital, ownership of hospital, and type of hospital.

Table 3.—MONTHLY STARTINg Salaries of Nurses in Nonfederal

Source: American Hospital Association. Hospital Salary Survey, 1955.

For the large group of private-duty nurses, payment is made by the day. For example, a statewide minimum of $14 a day on an 8-hour shift was established for private-duty nurses in Minnesota in 1954, with $9 per patient if the nurse takes care of two patients at the same time. The private-duty nurse frequently may lose time through delays in obtaining new cases, and this may have a considerable effect on earnings in the year. Data reported in the decennial census indicate that little more than half of all nurses work as much as 50 weeks in the year. At the rate cited, a year's earnings for 5 days a week for 50 weeks would amount to $3,500 (with one patient only).

Industrial nurses constitute a small proportion of the total nurse group. Their average weekly salaries (fall 1954-spring 1955) in 17 cities in all parts of the country ranged from $67.00 to $80.50, as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This would be a range of from $3,484 to $4,186 in a year of full-time employment. Averages were $75 or over a week in 6 of these cities, below $70 in 5 cities. Salaries of industrial nurses are shown in comparison with those of certain other professional or technical employees. Their average pay was below that of senior draftsmen; and in 6 of the 17 cities, below that of junior draftsmen-in two cities at least $4 a week less than junior draftsmen's pay. Organizations of nurses promote establishment of pay standards consistent with the work and living costs. For example, in 1953 the Washington State Nurses' Association negotiated a contract for nurses with an aircraft company for a weekly salary of $79.40, together with other benefits, including a health and welfare plan.

Earnings of Telephone Operators

Telephone operators comprise another large group of white-collar workers-95 percent are women, according to the decennial census of 1950. In 1954, average earnings of over 175,000 women experienced as switchboard operators and employed by Class A telephone carriers were $1.44 an hour, as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This average would yield $57.60 in a 40-hour week and, if 52 full weeks in the year were worked, would amount to just under $3,000 per year. Seventeen percent received less than $1.20 an hour, and the same proportion earned $1.70 or more an hour.

The earnings of experienced switchboard operators were exceeded by those of workers (men and women combined) in other nonsupervisory occupations, as table 4 shows. The average earnings of nonsupervisory sales or business-office workers were more than one-fourth higher than those of experienced switchboard operators. It may be of some significance that one-fourth of the sales and office workers were men, since all these were nonsupervisory occupations.