getting 10s. a week were not worth more, and that there were “many” women clerks getting from L300 to L350.  I said I was delighted to hear this as I had had difficulty in running to earth the woman clerk with L200, and had not before heard of the higher salaries.  I took out my notebook and begged for particulars.  He then said he knew of “one” of their diplomees working for a firm of florists, who had a salary of L300:  she was able to correspond in English, French, German, and Spanish.  I asked if he would kindly give me her name and address that I might interview her, but he said he could not possibly do that, as any woman clerk who allowed herself to be interviewed would be certain to lose her post.

The manager of a business in Manchester, who employs five shorthand typists, pays them from 15s. to 30s.  He admits that it is impossible for the girls to live on their salaries unless they are at home with their parents, as is the case with all of them.  But he says that it is unreasonable to expect him to give more than the market rates, and that for 30s. he gets excellent service.  He suggests that the only way to raise wages is for the clerks to organise.

The principal of a high class typing office in the City, a woman of experience, who trains only a select number of educated girls, never allows a pupil from her school to begin at less than 25s. a week with a prospect of speedy increase.  She pays her own translator L3, 5s. a week, and four members of her staff are paid at the rate of L160 a year.

Mr Elvin, Secretary of the Union of Clerks, tries to enforce a minimum wage of 35s. a week as the beginning salary for an expert shorthand typist, and this may be regarded as the present Trade Union rate.  Mr Elvin’s difficulty is chiefly with the girls themselves.  They are so accustomed to the idea of women being paid less than men that it is not easy to get them to insist on equal pay.  In one case he was asked to supply a woman secretary for a certain post.  He agreed to find a suitable person if the firm would guarantee a commencing salary of 35s. a week.  After some demur this was conceded, and he sent to a well-known school for three competent clerks that he might examine them and recommend the best of the three.  After the test he asked them, in turn, what salary they expected.  They were all over twenty-one years of age and all competent.  One mentioned 25s., the second 23s., and the third L1 a week.  On being asked, they said they knew they were worth more, but they thought that, as they were women, they would not get it.

Where there is no one to safeguard the interests of the clerk, an employer, on the look-out for cheap labour, finds it easily enough.  The head of a big firm offered a French girl, an expert shorthand writer in three languages, 15s. a week, with a possible rise after three months.  She finally accepted a post at 30s. a week as she could get nothing better through registries or by advertisement.