Part 8

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No information was obtained for pantry workers or waitresses in this group.

The Minimum Wage Board of the District of Columbia, in extending its minimum wage of $16.50 to hotel workers who were living-in, attempted to set a money value on the board and lodging furnished by the hotel. Because there was no way of determining its actual cost to the hotel management, the minimum cost of room and board for a self-supporting woman in the District of Columbia was taken. The figure used is $9 a week for board and lodging; two-thirds or $6 for board, and one-third or $3 for lodging. $13.50 is, therefore, the minimum on which a woman can maintain herself while living-in in a hotel but taking her meals outside. None of the hotels in New York State, furnishing lodging in addition to a cash wage, paid this minimum.

Footnote 7:

Minimum Wage Board of the District of Columbia. Wages of Women in Hotels and Restaurants in the District of Columbia. P. 16.

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In 8 hotels which paid the workers their wage, plus three meals a day, the following cash wages were paid to chambermaids and bathmaids:

1 paid at $6 but less $7 per least than week

0 " " 7 " " 8 " "

1 " " 8 " " 9 " "

5 " " 9 " " 10 " "

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Footnote 8:

The actual wage paid in this group was $10.00.

No information was obtained for pantry workers or waitresses in this group.

If the $16.50 minimum wage of the District of Columbia is taken, and $6 to cover the cost of three meals deducted, the minimum wage for this group would be $10.50. In no case was this amount received.

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The largest New York City hotels and the largest hotels in first class cities require maids to live in and prefer that some of the pantry workers and waitresses should do so. In these hotels chambermaids and bathmaids living-in have the following wage rates:

1 paid at $4 but less $5 per least than week

7 " " 5 " " 6 " "

17 " " 6 " " 7 " "

1 " " 7 " " 8 " "

2 " " 8 " " 9 " "

1 " " 9 " " 10 " "

If $9 for board and lodging is deducted from the $16.50 minimum wage of the District of Columbia, $7.50 is left as the minimum wage for this group of workers. When the wages of chambermaids living-in are taken, it will be noted that only four out of twenty-nine hotels pay this wage or more, and that over half pay between $6 and $7 per week.

Waitresses in one hotel in New York City where board and room are furnished received $6.92 a week. Pantry workers, who are a skilled class, received one of the highest wage rates found for women workers in hotels. They have, however, no access to tips. In one hotel they received $50 a month with board and lodging, or $11.53 a week, and in another hotel $55 a month with board and lodging, or $12.29 a week. In two hotels kitchen workers received $30 a month whether they lived in or out.

Tipping

Tips, or the giving of gratuities by the patrons of the hotel to workers who serve them, is the most unstandardized part of the earnings of the worker. Because the giving of tips depends not only on the whim of the public but upon the general prosperity of the country and the individual prosperity of the patron, it admits of no standardization. Tipping seems incongruous in that, by its own definition, the function of the hotel is service. It amounts to a direct payment by the public of a part of the worker’s wage.