sold accounts for approximately 75 cents of every retail dollar spent, and is responsible for this low ratio. Variations exist among the several kinds of retail business, apparently chiefly because of differences in the number of self-employed (payrolls exclude returns to them). The extremes appear to be in department stores and variety stores, on the one hand, where there are few or no selfemployed, and liquor stores, where almost half the personnel were reported self-employed in the 1948 United States Census of Business. The payroll-to-sales ratio in 1948 was 16 percent in department stores and in variety stores, 4 percent in liquor stores. SOME MISCONCEPTIONS REGARDING EMPLOYMENT IN RETAIL TRADE There are many popular misconceptions about employment in retail trade. These deal with the stability of employment in the industry, the lack of unemployment among full-time employees of retail trade, and the age and sex characteristics of workers in the industry. STABILITY OF EMPLOYMENT There is general agreement that average huorly earnings in retail trade is below the level in most of the industries. However, there is no such uniform agreement with respect to annual earnings. Actually, the theory has been advanced that many workers prefer employment in retail trade because the regularity of employment insures greater annual earnings than do industries with higher hourly earnings. In 1953, annual earnings in retail trade averaged $3,092 per employee as compared with $4,051 in manufacturing, $4,244 in construction, $4.364 in mining, and $4,465 in wholesale trade. Among the nonagricultural industries, annual earnings in retail trade were lower than in any other industry group with the exception of the service industries. However, even the service industries would not compare unfavorably if estimates of the value of non-money payments, like room and meals, could be added to cash wages. Data on annual earnings for the years 1950-53 are presented below to indicate that the pattern of relatively low annual earnings in retail trade is consistent from year to year. The Department of Commerce figures refer to averages for full-time workers. A discussion of annual earnings which was confined solely to major groups would fail to indicate the wide variations around the averages. In manufacturing, for example, while the combined average is $4,051 per year per employee there are many low-wage industries, in which the employees average considerably less than that amount. Similarly in the retail trade group, employees in the low-wage components average considerably less than $3,092 per year. The figures below show annual earnings per employee in low-wage manufacturing and retail trade industries. It is evident from these, that employees in low-wage manufacturing industries where seasonal unemployment is not uncommon, still earn more per year, on an average, than do employees in the low-wage retail trade industries. 1 These figures are averages for all employees covered by State unemployment insurance laws. The average for full-time employees would be somewhat greater, especially for variety stores. Unemployment Another popular misconception which is often stated to prove stability of employment in retail trade is that unemployment is practically nonexistent among full-time workers in retail trade. Actually available statistics indicate that unemployment rates for full-time retail-trade workers are somewhat higher than for all wage and salary workers combined, and considerably higher than the rates in wholesale trade and the service industries. Even when the comparison is limited to manufacturing industries, no clear-cut pattern in favor of retail trade emerges. In half the years for which data are presented below, the rates for retail trade are above those for manufacturing; in the other half, the standing is reversed. Unemployment rates, by major industry group and class of worker, for the United States: Annual averages, 1954, 1953, 1949, and 1948 NOTE.-Unemployment rates for industry groups represent the proportion of all civilian workers in a given group who were unemployed. For the employed, industry and class of worker relate to current job; for the unemployed, to the last full-time job. Source: Annual Report on the Labor Force, 1954; Current Population Reports, Series P-50, No. 59, April 1955, table VIII, p. 9, and unpublished data for retail and wholesale trade separately. Age and sex characteristics of workers in retail trade It is often stated that the age of the typical retail trade worker is very different from the average in other industries and that older women find employment only in retail trade. Actually the median age of workers in retail trade is about the same as for manufacturing industries. In general merchandise stores, for example, the median age of male workers is 37.5 years and that of female workers is 35.4 years. Comparable figures for the manufacturing group are 38.4 years and 34.5 years. Comparison of manufacturing with other lines of retail trade can be made from the data presented below. Furthermore, if an analysis by industry is made of the more than 1 million female workers over 60 years of age who were employed in 1950, it is evident that not all older women look to retail trade for employment. The personal services, including private households, accounted for more than one-fourth of these women; the professional and related services, for more than one-fifth of these women; retail trade for 18 percent; and manufacturing for 13 percent. Obviously, therefore, no single industry is the sole employer of older women. Retail Basic data on State minimum wage laws are summarized in table 4. trade activities are covered under minimum wage laws and orders in 22 States and the District of Columbia. In 14 of these States, minimum wage protection is given only to women, or women and minors. The hourly minimum rates in table 4 are grouped according to the highest minimum in the State although lower rates may apply to some employees, depending on location within the State or on length of workweek. Seven States and the District of Columbia have minimums as high as 75 cents or more an hour. (Minnesota is included even though enforcement of its law has been enjoined pending court review.) Table 4 also shows some minimums of 55 cents or less, 2 States below 30 cents. These latter 2, Arkansas and South Dakota, have not increased their rates for years despite sharp increases in wages and cost of living: Arkansas not since 1915 and South Dakota not since 1943. (All the other rates in table TABLE 4.-State minimum wage laws and orders applying to retail trade, by State, April 19551 1 Number of employees as of September 1953. 16 8 24 1,591 2 Several rates given for a State are variations according to location, unless otherwise noted. Rates are for experienced workers. Not all the hourly rates given in table are actually found in State laws and orders; some are computed from weekly or daily rates specified in State laws and orders. * Some States define a minor as any person under 21, other as any person under 18. 4 $30 for workweek of 36-40 hours. Pending court interpretation of new law, 75-cent rate is applied to retain trade. A 50-cent rate specified for "services," as defined. Employed by employers of 4 or more. 7 $30 for workweek of 36-44 hours. • Enforcement enjoined pending court review. 9 $28 for workweek of 36-44 hours. 10 Wage fixed in 1915 law was $1.25 for a 9-hour day. A 1943 amendment made the rate applicable to an 8-hour day. Source: U. S. Department of Labor: Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Divisions and Women's Bureau. According to table 4, 1,591,000 retail-trade employees are subject to State minimum wage laws and orders. Of these, only 1,241,000 receive wage protection at as high as 75 cents an hour. An additional 174,000 are employed in the 5 States with rates between 60 and 70 cents an hour. All told some 1,415,000 workers, one-fourth of industry employment, at present enjoy a reasonable amount of State minimum-wage protection. None of these 1,415,000 workers are located in the South, where retailing wages are comparatively low. WAGE STRUCTURE IN RETAIL TRADE Survey data on distributions of workers by earnings in retail trade are not available. Following is a summary of the available data pertaining to level of average earnings, trends in earnings, comparison of earnings levels with those of other industries, and variations in earnings by kind of retail business. LEVEL OF EARNINGS IN RETAIL TRADE Earnings are rather low in retail trade compared to other industries. For the year 1953, as an example, average hourly gross earnings in retail trade (except eating and drinking places) reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics averaged $1.39, compared to $1.76 in wholesale trade, $1.77 in manufacturing, $1.68 to $1.94 in transportation and public utilities, $1.70 to $2.42 in mining, and $2.42 in construction.' But retail earnings in that year averaged considerably higher than those in such service trades as year-round hotels ($0.91 without perquisites), laundries ($0.98), and cleaning and dyeing plants ($1.14) and slightly higher than those in some types of nondurable goods manufacture: tobacco ($1.24), apparel ($1.33), textile-mill products ($1.37), and leather and leather products ($1.37). TABLE 5.—Average hourly gross earnings of production workers or nonsupervisory employees, by industry, United States, 1947–531 1 Average hourly gross earnings include overtime pay, and are not the same as straight-time hourly wage rates. 2 Money payments only; additional value of board, room, uniforms, and tips, not included. Source: U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Trends in average hourly earnings in retailing compared with other industries Over the 7-year period 1947-53, average gross earnings in retailing increased almost two-fifths (38 percent), but lost ground to the 43 percent advance in average earnings for all manufacturing, the 47 percent advance in construction earnings, the approximately 50 percent advance in mining earnings, and the 40-61 percent earnings increases in transportation and public utilities. But over the period retail earnings gained percentagewise about as much as those 1 Almost one-fifth of paid retail employment in 1948 was in eating and drinking places, so the exclusion from the retail trade average of earnings in such establishments should be noted. These earnings are excluded because of the serious problems of comparability with wages in other retail lines created by the prevalence in eating and drinking places of such |