We subjoin a desk displaying the common wage or wages in 100 of the main occupations. In most instances the figures have been compiled from authorities experiences, however the place no experiences may very well be obtained an estimate has been made by taking the common receipts from sure districts. In the latter cases, after all, the desk can’t be thought of completely dependable; that is particularly the case with the professions of the lawyer, the physician, and the clergyman. Still, because the sections of the nation taken could also be thought of as pretty consultant of the entire, the figures will in all probability be discovered not far amiss.
Some individuals will likely be stunned to study the common lawyer and doctor obtain respectively solely $1,210 and $1,053, however they need to keep in mind that whereas the pay in these professions is usually as excessive as $25,000 and even $50,000 a yr, a large number of novices and unsuccessful males are toiling–or not toiling–for a mere pittance. Were it not for the ten per cent. of very profitable males in these professions who’re making fortunes, the common receipts could be even smaller by two or 300 {dollars} than they seem within the desk.
Other instances the place the figures might not have as a lot worth as may very well be desired are below the headings which actually comprise a bunch of occupations as an alternative of a single one, as that of the journalist and the electrician; but others the place the final title is that of a genus comprising many species, as that of the engineer; and nonetheless others the place there’s a nice distinction within the worth of the work carried out, as within the case of lecturers and manufacturing unit operatives. Again, in enterprise ventures, reminiscent of these of storekeepers, bankers, brokers, and others, many have truly misplaced cash, and this reduces immensely the common, whereas among the many so-called working lessons, days of idleness, prepared or enforced, function in the identical method.
Yet, on the entire, if anybody consults the desk as a basic information to the pecuniary rewards of the varied trades and professions, he’ll discover that they’ve been positioned of their relative monetary standing. In the occupations named, staff are typically meant, employers and unbiased staff being printed in capitals.
