ADVANTAGES IN DOMESTIC SERVICE
The question as to who constitute the class of domestic employees has
been partially answered. One fourth are of foreign birth or belong to
a different race from that of their employers, the majority are of
foreign birth, of foreign parentage, or of a different race. Nearly
one third of the number represented on the schedules have been engaged
in other occupations besides domestic service—a fact indicating three
things: first, the spirit of restlessness that characterizes the class,
though not peculiar to it; second, the industrial independence of a
considerable number of domestic employees, since they can at any time
change not only employers but employment;[242] third, the fact that many
do not enter domestic service with the thought of making it a permanent
occupation.[243] About two thirds of those who have had other work
report that they received higher wages in these occupations than in
domestic service. In nearly every case, however, these represented the
cash weekly or monthly wages received, not the yearly earnings, nor did
they include the factor of personal expenses as in domestic service.
The reasons why women have entered domestic service are many and various.
The following classification has been made of the reasons assigned by the
employees returning the schedules:
It was most available 239
Preference for it 202
Health grounds 100
Most profitable employment 37
To earn a living 17
Prefer it to work in mills 17
To have a home 17
Gives steady employment 12
To learn how 11
More leisure time than in other work 5
No capital necessary 2
To earn money to finish education 2
Greater variety in the work 1
---
Total 662
These reasons and others demand a more detailed examination. It is true
in domestic service, as in other occupations, that many drift into it
because it is apparently the only course open to them, but there are
certain advantages and disadvantages which a person who is free to choose
always weighs before deciding for or against the occupation.
The most obvious advantage is that of high remuneration,[244] including
not only wages and expenses, but as has been seen, the factors of steady
employment, certainty of position, and the fact that no capital is
required at any stage of the work or in preparation for it.
A second advantage is that the occupation is conducive to good health,
including as it does regularity and variety of work, and involving no
personal inconvenience or discomfort.[245] In one third of the families
considered men servants are employed in some capacity, and this means
that much of the hard work is done by them.
A third advantage is the fact that it gives at least the externals of
a home. This consideration weighs especially with the foreign born and
those who have no homes of their own.[246] How varied and numerous these
home privileges are is best illustrated by the replies given by employers
to the question, “Do you grant any special privileges?” Thirty answered
“No,” and one hundred and seventy-five gave no answer. Eight hundred
enumerated special privileges, and these formed sixty-eight different
classes. The most important of these are single rooms, medical care and
attendance when sick, use of daily papers, books, and magazines, evening
instruction, sitting-room for visitors, no restrictions as to visitors,
use of bath-room and sewing-machine, use of horse and carriage when
distant from church, seat at table except when guests are present, seat
in church, and concert and theatre tickets (in the families of newspaper
reporters). Many other privileges are mentioned,—these are the most
frequently granted. Seventy per cent of the employers state that they
give a single room, but about one half of this number employ only one
domestic. In many cases a large room is given for every two domestics,
with separate furniture for each. One hundred and forty-six specify
the use of the dining-room, and ninety-four families give the use of
a special sitting-room. All of these privileges show that even if the
employee is not a member of the family, her life is as much a part of it,
with the single exception of a seat at the family table, as is that of
the average boarder.
This enumeration of privileges does not include two other classes which
have in a sense ceased to be regarded as such, but rather as prerogatives
of the position. These are freedom from work at specified times each week
and a stated vacation during the year with or without wages.
The matter of free hours at stated times each week is apparently a simple
one—there is at first thought more uniformity here among housekeepers
than in regard to any other thing; but while only three per cent of the
employers do not give some specified time during the week, there are one
hundred and twenty-three classes of combinations which housekeepers have
found it possible to make out of the seven afternoons and seven evenings
of the week, thus apparently disproving the common belief that the
custom is universal of granting Thursday afternoon and Sunday evening.
In sixty-eight of these classes one or more afternoons are included and
in fifteen others some portion of Sunday. In the case of more than one
thousand employees at least one afternoon each week is given, while more
than four hundred employers give a part of Sunday.[247]
The question in regard to vacation granted during the year was answered
with reference to nearly a thousand employees, and in only one case was
a vacation not given, the time varying from the legal holidays, which
perhaps can hardly be called a vacation, to three months. Sixty-five
per cent of employers give a vacation of from one week to three months,
twenty per cent one or two weeks, fifteen per cent less than a week, and
twenty per cent give a vacation but do not specify the length of time.
These facts apply to women employees. In the case of men the conditions
are not materially different, the facts given indicating apparently a
smaller per cent among women receiving a vacation of more than two weeks
and a larger per cent receiving less than a week. In the great majority
of cases this vacation is given without loss of wages. Tables XVII and
XVIII illustrate these facts.
A short vacation granted during the year without loss of wages has
in many localities come to be regarded by employees as one of the
prerogatives of the occupation, and not, as formerly, a special privilege
given. All things considered, it is a matter of surprise that so much
rather than that so little time is given. In other occupations a
vacation can be granted employees during a dull season without loss to
the employer. But the household machinery cannot stop action without
disaster. A vacation given household employees means that the employer
must perform a double amount of domestic work, or provide for special
assistance—often a difficult and even impossible task.
TABLE XVII
VACATION GRANTED DURING THE YEAR
===================================+===============+===============
| WOMEN | MEN
REPORTED BY EMPLOYEES +------+--------+------+--------
|Number|Per cent|Number|Per cent
-----------------------------------+------+--------+------+--------
Total number of employees | 2073 | | 472 |
Not reported | 898 | | 267 |
Not applicable (laundresses, etc.) | 203 | | 50 |
Reported and applicable | 972 | | 155 |
Vacation granted | 971 | | 153 |
Time not specified | 202 | 20.78 | 34 | 21.94
Less than one week | 127 | 13.07 | 42 | 27.10
One week | 150 | 15.43 | 18 | 11.61
More than one week, less than two | 25 | 2.57 | 5 | 3.22
Two weeks | 210 | 21.61 | 33 | 21.29
More than two weeks | 257 | 26.44 | 21 | 13.55
No vacation | 1 | .10 | 2 | 1.29
===================================+======+========+======+========
TABLE XVIII
VACATION GRANTED WITH OR WITHOUT LOSS OF WAGES
===================================+===============+===============
| WOMEN | MEN
REPORTED BY EMPLOYEES +------+--------+------+--------
|Number|Per cent|Number|Per cent
-----------------------------------+------+--------+------+--------
With loss of wages | 210 | 21.63 | 20 | 13.07
Without loss of wages | 723 | 74.46 | 133 | 86.93
Half wages | 37 | 3.81 | |
Cost of board added | 1 | .10 | |
+------+--------+------+--------
Total | 971 | | 153 |
===================================+======+========+======+========
A fourth advantage that domestic service has as an occupation is
the knowledge it gives of household affairs and the training in
them—knowledge of which every woman, whatever her station in life and
whether married or unmarried, has at times most pressing need.[248]
A fifth consideration is that it offers congenial employment to many
whose tastes lie specially in this direction.[249] It is undoubtedly true
that many persons in other occupations would honestly prefer housework if
some of its present disadvantages could be eliminated.[250]
Still another advantage is the legal protection offered domestic
employees, although as Mr. James Schouler well says, the relation
of master and servant is in theory hostile to the genius of free
institutions, since it bears the marks of social caste. “It may be
pronounced as a relation of more general importance in ancient than
in modern times and better applicable at this day to English than to
American society.”[251] But technically, the relation according to
Chancellor Kent is a legal status resting entirely on contract. One
agrees to work and the other to pay, but both are on an equality as far
as rights are concerned.[252] The legal rights accorded a servant are
freedom from physical punishment,[253] proper food and support in illness
or disability during the time of employment,[254] the right to the
enjoyment of a good character—provided she has one—and the law presumes
she has it until the contrary appears,[255] wages, if the servant has
performed his part of the contract,[256] and damages in case of discharge
before the expiration of the contract.[257]
These advantages which domestic service as an occupation has over most
other employments are patent. They would be recognized by all, whether
domestic employees or not, as the accompaniments of the service as it
exists under reasonably favorable conditions. They are advantages
which, with the exception of the home privileges, are independent of the
personal character and disposition of employers. They are apparently
inherent in the occupation, as much to be expected as are free Sundays
and evenings after six o’clock in mills and factories. They are the
inducements which, when a choice has been possible, have led intelligent
women to become household employees. They are the advantages that have
been repeatedly set forth by the press and the pulpit to sewing-women
and shop-girls working at the starvation limit of wages in large cities
to induce them to better their condition. Unquestionably many such women
would be far better off than they are now if they were in comfortable
domestic service. It has been said by the head of one of our great
labor bureaus that all questions concerning wage-earning women resolve
themselves into those of “wages, hours, health, and morals,” and domestic
service conforms to all the requirements that could be demanded under
these four heads, with the possible exception of hours under unfavorable
conditions. But, notwithstanding these advantages, women in cities still
prefer sewing, country girls drift into mills and factories, teachers’
agencies are crowded with applicants who can never secure a position and
could not fill one if obtained; there must be something else involved in
the question besides the matter of “wages, hours, health, and morals.”