Page:The Girl Who Earns Her Own Living (1909).djvu/46

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

good impression, he will recall you, and nine chances out of ten he will give you work.

This brings us to the salary question. The superintendent will inquire whether you live at home with your parents. If you do, and there is a position behind the counter for you, six dollars a week will be the salary most probably offered. That may seem absurdly small, because you have planned on buying some pretty clothes and helping mother at home, in addition to paying carfare and buying lunches. But the superintendent is thinking not of what you feel you should have to spend, but what you will earn for the firm. You will not be worth more than six dollars a week at the beginning. Perhaps you will not be worth even that. Perhaps it will cost the firm money to train you for the position you imagine that you can fill without difficulty.

I will tell you just how to estimate your value to the firm. Your salary should never amount to more than five per cent. of your sales. That is, if your salary is six dollars a week, you should sell at least one hundred and twenty dollars worth of goods every week. You will have a record of your sales. Count this every night, and find the tatal at the end of the week. You need not be surprised if at first the firm pays you really more than you earn. If you are paid six dollars a week and your sales are only