Part 7

As the other hotel in which a pantry job was held was much larger, pantry and kitchen work was more specialized. There were pantry maids, coffee women, butter and cream women, and vegetable women. The butter and cream women and the pantry maids (salad girls) had the most irregular shifts. Two pantry maids worked a straight shift from 7 A.M. to 4 P.M. or a 9-hour day; two worked broken shifts from 8 A.M. to 2 P.M. and from 6 P.M. to 8 P.M., or an 8-hour day; and one worked from 4 P.M. to 1 A.M., a 9-hour day. These women ate their meals on the job so no time has been deducted for lunch hours.

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Broken shifts distributed over a long period of time with scheduled hours of work changing from day to day are a great hardship to the woman worker. Aside from the fact that two hours in the middle of the afternoon are useless to a woman if she must dress and take a car to go home, and take a car to return and dress again on reaching the hotel, broken shifts mean that meals and sleep must be snatched at irregular intervals. Such a hit or miss existence, with no regular hours for work, rest and recreation, does not make for the physical well-being of the worker.

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WAGES

When taking a position in a hotel the woman worker bargains as an individual for the wages she is to receive. She is without the support of a labor organization which would have set a standard for her occupation and would assist her in maintaining it. She applies for work in an industry where the wage scales are determined largely by the inclination of the hotel managers and by the labor supply. She must go from hotel to hotel to learn what is being paid, for the wage opportunities vary from establishment to establishment.

She cannot even estimate the value of the wage she is to receive in the majority of jobs. This is due to two uncertain elements in the earnings of hotel workers; tipping and compensation other than money in the form of board and room. Because she is not in a position to gauge the amount of the tips she will receive and the quality of the board and lodging, the only recourse of the applicant is to try out the job for a time. “Well, I’ll try it out for a week and see how I make out,” is the common expression of the new worker. If it is not a good house for tips, if she can’t eat the food, and if the living-in conditions are unbearable, she will go somewhere else and try again. By trying out job after job she loses time and greatly decreases her yearly earnings.

Cash Wages

In the smaller hotels of New York City and the hotels of the smaller cities of the State, a straight cash wage was paid to women workers in all occupations. The wages of chambermaids and bathmaids varied from $8.77 a week to $16 in the 46 hotels where wage rates were obtained. Of these, the one hotel paying $8.77 a week was the largest hotel of a second class city where two large factories employing great numbers of women had closed down. The housekeeper said, “The works have shut down, so you can get workers at any price.” The one hotel paying $16 a week employed only three maids on a long-hour schedule.

The straight cash wages paid to chambermaids and bathmaids in the 46 hotels are as follows:

1 paid at $8 but less $9 per least than week

9 " " 9 " " 10 " "

11 " " 10 " " 11 " "

9 " " 11 " " 12 " "

11 " " 12 " " 13 " "

2 " " 13 " " 14 " "

2 " " 14 " " 15 " "

0 " " 15 " " 16 " "

1 " " 16 " " 17 " "

Footnote 6:

The actual wage paid in this group was $16.00.

Few women workers were employed in the kitchens and pantries of these hotels. No waitresses were employed.

A comparison of these wage rates may be made with the minimum wage fixed for hotel workers in 1919 in the District of Columbia where the cost of living is comparable to that of New York State. The Minimum Wage Board of the District of Columbia decided that a wage of $16.50 a week was the minimum on which a self-supporting woman could live. In no case do the hotels investigated in New York State pay this minimum when a straight cash wage is paid and the workers do not live in the hotels. It can be seen from these figures that 40 of the 46 hotels pay between $9 and $13 or an average of $11 per week.

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In six hotels at which jobs were applied for, lodging was offered, but no meals. The following cash wages were offered to chambermaids and bathmaids in addition to lodging:

1 paid at $8 but less $9 per least than week

3 " " 9 " " 10 " "

1 " " 10 " " 11 " "