Page:The Girl Who Earns Her Own Living (1909).djvu/304



who has read the preceding chapters with any degree of earnestness can fail to realize that between the day of leaving school and the day of actual economic independence there is bound to be a period of financial stringency. This may be represented by an underpaid or even unpaid apprenticeship, or by a dreary search for work on the part of the untrained girl who must secure some sort of livelihood and her training through experience at one and the same time. Even the girl from out-of-town who has a trade or who has had office or store experience must prove her worth to the city employer, and this represents a period of living on very small wages.

A social worker who has given much earnest thought and investigation to the problem states that the average wage paid to the out-of-town girl during her first three months in a large city like New York, Chicago or Denver is five