We subjoin a table showing the average salary or wages in one hundred of the leading occupations. In most cases the figures have been compiled from government reports, but where no reports could be obtained an estimate has been made by taking the average receipts from certain districts. In the latter instances, of course, the table cannot be considered perfectly reliable; this is especially the case with the professions of the lawyer, the doctor, and the clergyman. Still, as the sections of the country taken may be considered as fairly representative of the whole, the figures will probably be found not far amiss.

Some persons will be surprised to learn the average lawyer and physician receive respectively only $1,210 and $1,053, but they should bear in mind that while the pay in these professions is sometimes as high as $25,000 and even $50,000 a year, a great number of beginners and unsuccessful men are toiling—or not toiling—for a mere pittance. Were it not for the ten per cent. of very successful men in these professions who are making fortunes, the average receipts would be even smaller by two or three hundred dollars than they appear in the table.

Other cases where the figures may not have as much value as could be desired are under the headings which really comprise a group of occupations instead of a single one, as that of the journalist and the electrician; yet others where the general name is that of a genus comprising many species, as that of the engineer; and still others where there is a great difference in the value of the work performed, as in the case of teachers and factory operatives. Again, in business ventures, such as those of storekeepers, bankers, brokers, and others, many have actually lost money, and this reduces immensely the average, while among the so-called working classes, days of idleness, willing or enforced, operate in the same way.

Yet, on the whole, if any one consults the table as a general guide to the pecuniary rewards of the various trades and professions, he will find that they have been placed in their relative financial standing. In the occupations named, employees are generally meant, employers and independent workers being printed in capitals.