Rhode Island, in its Third Annual Report for 1889, under the direction of Commissioner Almon K. Goodwin, gives the average wage for the State as $5.87, and devotes the bulk of its space to working-women, with full returns from the entire State.

For the same year California, by its labor commissioner, Mr. John J. Tobin, gives an equally exhaustive statement of the conditions of women wage-earners in that State.  The lowest weekly wage given is $5, and the highest $11.  Plain cooks receive from $25 to $40 a month with board and lodging, and domestic servants from $15 to $25 with board.  In cloak-making the lowest wage is $3, and the highest $7.50; and in shirt-making the lowest is $2.50, and the highest $6.  General clothing and underwear range from $4.50 to $6, and other trades average a trifle higher wage than in New England.  The chapter on domestic service is suggestive and important, and the whole treatment makes the report a necessity to all who would understand the situation in detail.  This, however, is so true of all that have touched upon the subject that it appears invidious to single out any one alone.  They must be taken together.  With each year the scientific value of each increases, and there appears to be distinct emulation among the commissioners as to which shall embody the most in the returns made and the general treatment of the whole.

The first report from Colorado, issued in 1888, Mr. James Rice commissioner, devotes a chapter to women wage-earners, with an additional one on domestic service and its drawbacks.  The average wage for the State is given as $6; and the commissioner states that notwithstanding the general impression that higher wages are paid in Colorado than at any other point save California, actual returns show that the average sums in several occupations are less than that paid to persons similarly employed in cities along the Atlantic seaboard.

Kansas, in its fifth annual report issued in 1889, gives a section to working-women.  The commissioner, Mr. Frank Betton, considers the returns imperfect, great difficulty having been experienced in securing them.  The average weekly wage is given as $5.17.  Expenses are carefully analyzed, and there is a report of the remarks of employers, as well as from a number of those employed.

In the report from Iowa for 1887, Commissioner Hutchins laments that so few women have been willing to fill out blanks of returns.  The wage returns given range from $3.75 to $9.  The report for 1889 makes mention of continued difficulties in securing returns, and gives the annual earnings of women as from $100 to $440.  The tables include cost of living and many other essential particulars.

Wisconsin, in the report for 1884, has a chapter on working-girls.  It gives the average weekly income in personal services as $5.25; in trade, $4.18; in manufactures, $5.22, and the general average for the year as $5.17.