Behind the Scenes in a
Restaurant
A Study of 1017 Women Restaurant
Employees
By
The Consumers’ League of New York City
1916
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
1. FOREWORD 1
2. PLAN OF STUDY 3
3. THE WORKER 6
Age 6
Nationality 8
Family and Home 10
4. HOURS 12
Weekly Hours of Labor 12
The Day of a Restaurant Worker 15
Night Work and One Day’s Rest in Seven 17
The Long-day Workers 19
5. WAGES 20
Weekly Wages 20
The Tipping System 23
Irregularity of Employment 25
Lack of Opportunity in Restaurant Work 26
6. SUMMARY OF STUDY 27
7. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR LEGISLATIVE AMENDMENT 29
8. APPENDIX I.—A Statement from the Labor Department of the
State of New York Advocating the Limitation of Hours of
Work for Restaurant Employees 31
9. APPENDIX II.—Extracts from a Tentative Report on the Physical
Condition of Women Employees in Restaurants, Based on a
Study Conducted by the Occupational Clinic of the Health
Department of the City of New York 33
10. APPENDIX III.—Restaurant Work from a Worker’s Point of View 35
11. APPENDIX IV.—Schedule Used 37
12. APPENDIX V.—Tables 39
13. APPENDIX VI.—State Laws Regulating Work of Women Employed
in Restaurants 47
[Illustration: WANTED—A REST]
FOREWORD.
“I keep hearing about laws for women. Where are they?” This was the
question asked by a woman working twelve hours a day in a restaurant.
What must we tell her? What excuse have we to offer for excluding her
from the protection the law gives to women working in factories and
mercantile establishments? That we have safeguarded women in these fields
of employment from overwork proves that we know the dangers of overwork,
that long hours interpreted in terms of human life mean exhaustion,
disease, immorality, pauperism and a weaker generation to follow our own.
This is an old story, it has been told again and again. Yet with our
over-sensitiveness to an encroachment upon the rights and liberties of
American citizens, we have failed to extend the protection of our laws to
all who need their protection.
The New York State Labor Law as it stands makes it illegal to employ
women in factories and mercantile establishments more than fifty-four
hours or six days in any one week, or between ten o’clock at night and
six o’clock in the morning. So far, so good. If these laws are enforced,
we may feel fairly confident that women in these branches of industry
at least have some measure of protection. But what of the women not
safeguarded by the law? Who are they, and why should they be neglected?
Between fifteen and twenty thousand of these women are workers in
restaurants—waitresses, cooks, kitchen girls, pantry hands—upon whose
services all of us depend at one time or another for our comfort and
pleasure. The Consumers’ League of New York City has long felt the need
of including restaurant workers under the provisions of the Labor Law.
The State Department of Labor lays special stress upon this need.[1]
Believing, therefore, both from casual observation and from the statement
of the Labor Department that women in restaurants are not properly
guarded from industrial strain, the League planned to explore the field
further, to discover just what actually are the hours, wages and general
conditions of work in this branch of industry and to learn their effect
upon the life and health of the worker.
A valuable study of this subject was made in 1910 by the United States
Bureau of Labor Statistics for New York and several of the larger cities
of the country.[2] Though the Consumers’ League has not entered upon
wholly new ground, yet with adequate time for detailed study it has
been possible for it to make a more exhaustive inquiry than any made
heretofore, and to bring to light new phases of the question. The story
of its discoveries is told in the pages that follow, to this end, that
with wider knowledge of facts, public interest may be reawakened and
stimulated to demand adequate legal protection for women employed in
restaurants.
PLAN OF STUDY.
Believing that one of the most satisfactory sources of information in
regard to labor conditions is the word of the workers themselves, the
Consumers’ League decided to base its study mainly upon interviews with
restaurant employees. One thousand and seventeen (1,017) women were
interviewed in New York City and in six of the larger cities of the
State. They were seen in their homes, at their places of employment and
through employment agencies.
In New York City all the interviews were held at the Occupational Clinic
of the Board of Health, where, through the courtesy of Dr. Harris, Chief
of the Bureau of Industrial Hygiene, a room was set aside for the use
of the League investigator. In response to a requirement of the Health
Department, all food-handlers in the city come to the Clinic for a
physical examination and certificate testifying that they are free from
communicable disease. The investigator could in this way meet the women
on neutral ground when there was no temptation to conceal or distort
facts, and talk confidentially with them. The interviews taken at the
Clinic in five months would have required at least a year to get in any
other way.
The New York State Consumers’ League and the branch leagues in Buffalo,
Syracuse and Mr. Vernon co-operated in interviewing women in localities
outside of New York City, and the same undesirable conditions were found
to prevail throughout the State.
Supplementary information was also obtained from all other available
sources, such as employers, employment agencies, girls’ clubs and
published reports. The workers came from every kind of restaurant,
including hotels, tea-rooms, buffet and dairy lunches, cafeterias and
clubs. In this way it was possible to get in touch with a thoroughly
representative group of workers, including the best paid as well as the
most underpaid.
In undertaking the investigation, the League sought to answer three
questions: first, what are the actual conditions of labor prevailing in
the restaurants of New York State; second, are these conditions such that
the worker may lead a wholesome, normal life; and third, how do these
conditions react through the individual worker upon society as a whole.
The Consumers’ League acknowledges its deep indebtedness to Dr.
Harris for the helpful interest that he has taken in its work,
and for his courtesy in allowing the League investigator to
take interviews at the Occupational Clinic.
[Illustration: The Normal Working Day—Eight Hours.
A Common Occurrence—Fifteen Hours.]
There is no class of employees who serve the public so directly as do
restaurant workers. Also, it is obviously of vital interest to the public
that those who serve them in this way be strong and healthy since they
are in a position peculiarly adapted to spread disease. The study just
terminated has brought to light certain facts which point to a grave
danger to the individual worker, to those whom she serves and to the
community. Hard work kept up for incredibly long hours, low pay, health
impaired and resistance to disease lowered through fatigue—these are some
of the facts which make action on our part necessary, that restaurant
work may be a safe and wholesome occupation.
THE WORKER.
AGE.
An outstanding feature of restaurant work is the presence in this
occupation of a very large proportion of girls and young women.
One-fourth of all the workers are under 21, and two-thirds under 30 years
of age. (See Diagram 1). There are several reasons to account for this
fact.
A certain amount of excitement attaches to the work of a restaurant
waitress which appeals to young girls. She sees and talks to a great
many people; she likes the noise and bustle and cheerful atmosphere of
the dining room. Also, the employer prefers young and pretty girls as
waitresses, especially where the customers are mostly men. They help to
make his place attractive and popular. One waitress remarked, “When the
girls get to looking bad, they are laid off and someone else is put in
their place.”
As might be expected, restaurant cooks are a somewhat older set of women
than the waitresses, not quite one-half being under 30 years. Their work
requires experience and the ability to think and plan. Considering the
nature and demands of the work, it is startling to find that twenty per
cent. of their number are girls not yet 21 years old.
Over seventy-five per cent. of the kitchen girls and other helpers[3] are
under 30, and nearly half under 21. This is the youngest group. Their
work needs no skill or previous training, the chief requirement being
physical strength.
The youth of these restaurant workers gives rise to two distinct dangers,
a physical danger and a moral one. Restaurant work necessarily involves
many hours of standing and walking, lifting and carrying heavy weights.
This is an unavoidable feature, but it is of the utmost importance that
it be not ignored. Medical authorities have pointed out the serious
results that follow the strain of continued standing and over-work
of young girls. Dr. Harris states that in occupations which require
such lifting and carrying and such long hours of standing “there is a
definite hazard to the child-bearing capacity of women. This is of vital
consequence to society as a whole.”
[Illustration:
+--------------------------------------+
| |
| All workers UUUUUUXXXXXXXXXXOOOOOOOO |
| Waitresses UUUUXXXXXXXXXXXXOOOOOOOO |
| Cooks UUUUUXXXXXXXOOOOOOOOOOOO |
| Helpers UUUUUUUUUUUXXXXXXXOOOOOO |
| |
+--------------------------------------+
_KEY_
U under 21 yrs.
X 21 and under 30 yrs.
O 30 yrs. and over
DIAGRAM 1.—Ages of Women Employed in Restaurants by Occupation.]
The moral danger of the work is largely confined to waitresses. Because
of their position, they are peculiarly exposed to the attentions of men
customers. For this very reason, the Baltimore Vice Commission recommends
that only older and more experienced women be employed in this capacity,
while in Norway the law sets a minimum age limit for waitresses in public
places.
If the restaurant worker is to resist the strain of the work and the
temptations to which she is exposed, hours and conditions must be so
adjusted as to prevent all overtaxing of her strength and elasticity.
[Illustration:
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| American |XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 33% |
| Austro-Hungarian |XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 39% |
| English & Canadian |XXX 3% |
| German |XXXXXXXX 8% |
| Irish |XXXXXXX 7% |
| Polish |XX 2% |
| Russian |XXXX 4% |
| Other |XXXX 4% |
| |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
DIAGRAM 2.—Nationality of Women Restaurant Workers.]
NATIONALITY.
The majority of restaurant workers are foreigners. Less than one-third
are American-born, and of these a great many have foreign-born parents
and live among members of their own race, so that they can hardly
be classed as Americans. The largest single group is made up of
Austro-Hungarians. (See Diagram 2). The demand for cheap, unskilled labor
in this occupation calls for the kind of service which these girls and
others of the European peasant class can give. The outdoor life in the
fields of their native land fits them for the hard labor required in a
restaurant kitchen. They do not remain fit long, however. After a year or
two of this work, much of their sturdiness is lost, color and brightness
are gone from their faces, and they have become pale and listless. A
curiously dull, passive look is characteristic of many of them.
Living as they do among their own people these young peasants have no
opportunity to absorb American standards and customs. Their ignorance
makes it easy for employers to exploit them, demanding hours of labor
and paying wages to which no American girl would submit. An employment
agent said: “My ’phone rings day and night—all want peasant girls for
kitchen helpers because they are the only kind that will stand such long
hours.” Attempts to organize restaurant workers in New York State have
never succeeded. The Secretary of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees’
International Alliance, speaking of their unsuccessful efforts along
this line in New York City in 1915, says, “This is not the first attempt
to organize the girls. We have had a similar experience before,—in fact
have had three experiences in that city and none of them a bit more
encouraging than the present one.” This is largely due to the presence
of so great a number of young foreign girls in this occupation. They are
not in a position to unite and work for their own protection. The only
channel through which that protection can come is the law.
[Illustration:
+---------------------------------------------------+
| |
| XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 45% |
| RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR 21% |
| FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF 16% |
| MMMMMMMMMMMMMM 14% |
| PPPP 4% |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------+
_KEY_
X family
R relatives
F friends
M furnished room
P proprietor
DIAGRAM 3.—Living Condition of Women Employed in Restaurants.]
[Illustration:
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS 53% |
| MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM 33% |
| WWWWWWWWWWW 11% |
| DDD 3% |
| |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
_KEY_
S single
M married
W widowed
D divorced
DIAGRAM 4.—Marital Condition of Women Employed in Restaurants.]
FAMILY AND HOME.
While the greater number of restaurant workers are unmarried, it is
rather surprising to find so large a proportion of married women in the
work. (See Diagram 4.) This is easily explained, however, by the fact
that many of them are “one-meal” girls, that is, they are employed only
for the rush hour at noon. In this way they can earn a little extra money
while their husbands are at work, either as “pin-money” for themselves,
or to help toward the support of the children.
The majority of restaurant employees live with their family or relatives
(See Diagram 3), but this does not mean that they are not entirely
self-dependent. As large a proportion of a girl’s wage goes into
the family exchequer as she would have to pay for board and lodging
elsewhere. The financial advantage of living at home appears chiefly in
giving her a place of refuge when she is out of a job.
Restaurant workers are a tenement house population. A few, to be sure,
can afford comfortable little apartments of their own, but as a whole
their lot falls within the congested tenement districts of the city.
Confusion, over-crowding, dirt, lack of sunlight, air and privacy, and
unwholesome surroundings are only too common in their homes. The janitor
of an East Side tenement house said: “A little while ago down in Third
Street there were twenty-three girls sleeping in two rooms. They’d put
their mattresses down on the floor at night and pile them on top of each
other in the day time. Most of them were kitchen hands at ⸺’s,” naming a
well-known chain of restaurants.
The low standards of the European peasant class from which restaurant
workers are largely recruited, drag down all standards. No other result
is possible under present conditions. They live—but how? Low wages,
miserably long hours, no opportunity to fit themselves for their new
surroundings—this is what we offer these young peasant girls who come to
America confidently expecting better things than they have left behind.
HOURS.
WEEKLY HOURS OF LABOR.
The salient characteristic of restaurant work is the length of the
working day. Fifty-eight per cent. of the women employees work each week
beyond the fifty-four-hour limit set by law for women in stores and
factories. A twelve-hour day and a seven-day week is the lot of one-fifth
of these workers. (See Diagram 5.) A fifteen-hour day is not uncommon.
Not quite one-half of the waitresses work over 54 hours a week or 9 hours
a day. The reason for this is that a large number of them, 31 per cent.,
are “one-meal girls.” _Seventy-eight per cent._ of all other restaurant
workers, however, exceed the fifty-four hour week.
Comparing the hours of labor of these women with the hours of labor of
all employees, both male and female, in the factories of New York State,
four per cent. of the factory employees and thirty-five per cent. of the
women restaurant employees work over sixty hours a week. Two per cent. of
the factory employees and twenty per cent. of the women in restaurants
work seventy-two hours or over.[4]
[Illustration:
+------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| all employees in factories UXXOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |
| female employees in restaurants UUUUUXXXXOOOOOOOOOOO |
| |
+------------------------------------------------------+
_KEY_
U 72 hours and over
X over 60 and under 72 hours
O 60 hours and under
DIAGRAM 6.—Comparison of Weekly Hours of Labor for Women in Restaurants
and all Factory Employees in New York State.]
Shorter hours have been brought about in factories by the voluntary
action of manufacturers, who recognize the inefficiency of over-worked
men and women; by concerted action of the workers, who have united to
fight for their own protection; and by legal enactment, proving that
the people of New York State are alive to the dangers of overwork.
Some restaurant managers realize the waste and harm of too long hours
and arrange their employees’ time accordingly; most of them do not.
Women restaurant workers in New York State have never been successfully
organized; they cannot protect themselves. They have no legal redress
for overwork; the law has neglected them. In the course of this
investigation, a girl of twenty was found working one hundred and
twenty-two hours a week—longer than the law allows factory employees
to work in two weeks. Yet this is within the law. Although restaurants
differ from stores and factories in keeping open more hours a day, and
sometimes for the whole twenty-four, a system of shifts would do away
with the scandalously long hours to which thousands of girls and women
are bound.
[Illustration:
+--------------------------------------------+
| |
| under 15 hrs. X 1% |
| 15 and under 25 XXXXXXXX 8% |
| 25 and under 35 XXXXXXXXXXX 11% |
| 35 and under 45 XXXXXX 6% |
| 45 and under 55 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 16% |
| 55 and under 65 DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD 19% |
| 65 and under 75 DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD 18% |
| 75 and under 85 DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD 16% |
| 85 and under 95 WWW 3% |
| 95 and under 105 W 1% |
| 105 hrs. and over W 1% |
| |
+--------------------------------------------+
_KEY_
X 54 hrs. and under
D over 54 and under 85
W 85 hrs. and over
DIAGRAM 5.—Weekly Hours of Labor of Women Employed in Restaurants.]
That restaurant work is at best a great drain upon the physical strength
and nervous force of the worker is evident. Standing, walking, lifting
and carrying heavy weights is unavoidable. The report on restaurants made
by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics says: “There was much
complaint among the waitresses that the work was very hard and they could
stand it but a few years. A number of the girls interviewed had worked as
three meal girls until their health was broken; then they took positions
as one meal girls and barely made a living. Carrying the heavy trays and
the constant standing and walking cause ill health. Usually a man is
employed to carry away the empty dishes, but the waitresses must bring
the trays loaded with food.”[5]
Besides the cost to endurance, nerves are at constant tension for hurry
is the remorseless rule. A waitress must not only remember a multitude
of orders and fill them quickly, but she must keep her temper under the
exactions of the most trying customer. The cook must keep her head amid
the confusion and noise of a hot, crowded kitchen. The kitchen girl must
be everywhere at once with a helping hand and the dish-washer’s very job
depends upon her quickness. One of this latter group said that she washes
seven thousand articles in an hour and a half. A waitress, when asked
the effect of the work upon her, answered, “Sore feet and a devilish
mean disposition.” A man restaurant worker speaking of kitchen girls
remarked, “It’s no work for a woman. They have to lift heavy pots full
of vegetables and fill in all the gaps. A man has some endurance, but a
woman can’t stand it more than nine hours a day.”
Many kinds of work are difficult and taxing in their performance, but if
the working day is not prolonged beyond a certain point, and there is a
sufficient period of rest, such work is not necessarily injurious to the
health of the worker. If this point is passed, health is impaired.
[Illustration: A MOVIE OF THE RESTAURANT WORKER
I 7 A.M. The Waitress arrives—15 minutes for breakfast
II 7.15 to 10 A.M. Customers must be served
III 10 to 12 A.M. She sorts, folds and polishes
IV 12 to 3 P.M. With heavy trays she walks about five miles
V 3 to 5 P.M. “Free” and nowhere to go
VI 5 to 8 P.M. Carrying trays and walking many miles
VII 9 P.M. Exhausted—Home and to bed
VIII 6 A.M. The daily grind begins again
HER PROGRAM FOR ELEVEN HOURS A DAY! SEVEN DAYS A WEEK!]
THE DAY OF A RESTAURANT WORKER.
The day of a restaurant worker does not begin with her arrival at
the restaurant nor end when she leaves. Half of these women live at
a distance, taking thirty minutes or more to reach their place of
employment. When this extra hour spent in going to and from work is
added to a twelve hour day, it is a factor to be reckoned with. It means
cutting off an already insufficient night’s rest, and, when a girl cannot
afford carfare, a weary walk home after being on her feet all day. Nor
is this all. Only a few of the best-paid waitresses can afford to pay
for the laundering of their aprons and uniforms. Consequently this must
be done by the girl herself, adding another burden to a load already too
heavy.
The law requires that girls in factories and stores have at least
one-half hour off for luncheon. This does not apply to restaurant
workers. The “one-meal” girls eat before and after serving, but the
majority of the “two-meal” and full-time girls have no time at all for
meals. They must eat when they can snatch a moment from their work.
There were many complaints of indigestion and loss of appetite from the
workers as a result of haste and irregularity in taking their meals. One
girl remarked, “You’re glad to grab ’em any way you can round here,” and
another said, “It’s a wonder more girls aren’t dead, the way they eat all
of a rush. Often the smell of food all the time takes away my appetite so
I can’t eat any way.”
A regular time off for meals would be of great benefit to the worker
not only in allowing her to eat quietly and comfortably, but in giving
her a little rest. In some restaurants after the noon rush is over the
girls can sit down and do “side-work,” folding napkins, polishing silver,
filling salt-cellars, etc. The greater number of girls, however, have no
so-called “idle time.” They must be on their job continuously. In other
restaurants the girls work on a “split trick,” that is, they have one or
two hours off in the afternoon. This is a very unpopular arrangement. Not
only does it keep them out late in the evening, but they cannot use their
free time to good advantage. There is little opportunity for recreation
or social intercourse during these hours because they come in the morning
or afternoon when the girls’ friends are all at work. Nor is there
ordinarily time for fresh air and exercise, especially in the case of the
kitchen workers. A waitress usually has only to take off her apron to
be ready for the street, but the other women have not time to change to
street clothes and back again in their free period. They stay in the hot
kitchen because no other place is provided.
Up at six, away at 6:30, home at 8 o’clock at night worn out by the wear
and tear of twelve hours’ toil, a dress and an apron to be washed and
ironed for tomorrow—after a day like this, what spirit or strength is
left to a girl for play and the friendly relations that safeguard her
from moral danger? It is a significant fact that with few exceptions
the restaurant worker is not known to settlements and girls’ clubs. She
does not share the group interests and social life open to other working
girls. Neither does she make friends with her fellow-workers—the spring
and vitality needed to win and establish friendships has been lost under
the deadening effect of overwork.
According to Miss Mary Van Kleeck’s estimate in her study of “Working
Girls in Evening Schools,” less than one per cent. of those attending
were restaurant workers. They simply have not the physical strength
for outside activities and interests. Time after time in answer to the
question “What do you do in the evening?” came the reply, “Oh, I go right
to bed.” One girl, who left the work because of broken health, said, “If
I went out in the evening I’d be sick the next day, and the boss would
say I couldn’t expect to do good work if I stayed out late at night.”
The report on restaurants of the Chicago Juvenile Protective Association,
emphasizes a truth too much ignored when it says: “The entire
investigation revealed once more the hideous risks of the excessively
fatigued and overworked girl, who is able to obtain the rest and comfort
she craves only through illicit channels.”[6]
[Illustration: Restaurant Kitchen Opening on Row of Toilets.
Loaned by the Tenement House Department of the City of New York.]
NIGHT WORK AND ONE DAY’S REST IN SEVEN.
Although the number of women employed in restaurants at night is not
great, night work in this occupation is a factor to be seriously
considered. The restaurants which employ women at night are the small
establishments in the tenement districts of the city where hours are
longest and surroundings most trying; the cheaper restaurants in the
theatre districts where the employment of women is an added attraction
to after-the-theatre supper parties; and restaurants in railway stations
which are necessarily open all night.
The law makes it illegal to employ women in factories and mercantile
establishments between 10 p. m. and 6 a. m. The reasons which caused the
state to exercise its police power to safeguard the health and morals
of these classes of workers apply equally to the employment of women
in restaurants. The very fact that only four per cent. of the workers
interviewed were employed at night proves that night work for women
in restaurants is not a necessary evil. That it is an evil is beyond
question.
The dangers of night work are two-fold. First, it is a distinct menace
to the health of the worker. The Factory Investigating Commission in
its Report to the Legislature for 1913, states: “The chief danger to
health from night work is ... due to the inevitable lack of sleep and
sunlight. Recuperation from fatigue takes place fully only in sleep,
and best in sleep at night. Hence night work is, in a word, against
nature. This injury to health is all the greater because sleep lost at
night by working women is never fully made up by day. For, in the first
place, sleep in the day time is not equal in recuperative power to sleep
at night.... Moreover, quiet and privacy for sleep by day is almost
impossible to secure. Upon returning home in the middle of the night or
at dawn the workers can snatch at most only a few hours’ rest.”
Often a woman will have one week of night work alternating with a week of
work in the day time. She hardly gets accustomed to sleeping by day when
she is taken off the night shift, to change back again at the end of the
week. Thus it is impossible for her to form regular habits in sleeping
and eating.
Secondly, there is a grave moral danger involved in night work,
especially for restaurant workers since at this time they are open to
the attentions of an undesirable class of men. “I don’t like to work at
night,” one young waitress said. “The men are always fresher to girls
at night than in the day time. Perhaps it’s because so many of those
gamblers come in drunk.” Nor is it safe for a woman to go home alone
after twelve o’clock at night. Instances of hideous occurrences are
familiar to everyone. A little widow, the mother of seven children, told
the investigator that she had given up her work as a dishwasher for this
very reason. A friend of hers working in a nearby restaurant, was set
upon, robbed and killed on her way home from work late one night. “I
changed my work then,” said the woman, “for what would the children do if
anything happened to me?”
The majority of restaurants employ men for night duty. It is evident,
therefore, that the employment of women is not essential to the
convenience and comfort of either restaurant owners or customers.
In nearly every branch of industry the working week is six days long.
It is universally conceded that there must be one day in the seven for
rest and relaxation if men and women are to give their best service. With
restaurant workers, thirty-three per cent. of whom have no day of rest
in seven, the need for such a time is particularly great because of the
long working day. Otherwise they have no opportunity for a thorough rest
and the poisons of fatigue are not thrown off. If these poisons are not
eliminated, they accumulate in the system and finally result in physical
breakdown.
And not only is this free day important on the score of health, but it is
also the time for recreation and the strengthening of family ties. For
the girl who has no leisure, no time for real relaxation and play, there
is only a starved and empty existence. A woman who has no opportunity
to be with and to know her children, who must leave them to the care of
friends or a day nursery or the street, who has no day in the week to be
at home with them, can hardly be a potent factor in shaping their lives.
She suffers and so do the children, and the stability of such a family
life is at best uncertain. One woman said, “If I get a half day off on
Sunday to be with my children, it makes me happy all the week.”
[Illustration:
|UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
|XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
|OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
| | | | |
| 10% 20% 30% 40%
_KEY_
U under 21 years
X 21 and under 30 years
O 30 years and over
DIAGRAM 7.—Ages of Women Restaurant Workers Employed Over 54 Hours
Weekly.]
[Illustration:
|UUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
|XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
| | | | | | | | | |
| 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
_KEY_
U foreign
X American
DIAGRAM 8.—Nationality of Women Restaurant Workers Employed Over 54
Hours Weekly.]
THE LONG-DAY WORKERS.
Who are the workers that bear the brunt of the long hours in restaurants?
They are for the most part the younger women and girls—those who are most
likely to be injured by overstrain. They are the very ones whom it is to
society’s interest to protect most carefully since by their strength is
measured the strength of the next generation. Less than thirty per cent.
of all workers exceeding fifty-four hours a week are over thirty years of
age. (See Diagram 7.)
Foreign-born women also make up the greater part of this group. (See
Diagram 8.) They do not know how to protect themselves from employers’
unreasonable demands, they must have work and they are not trained for
anything except unskilled labor. They will work any number of hours
exacted by the employer whatever the cost, until exhaustion renders them
unfit for labor of any kind.
WAGES.
WEEKLY WAGES.
The wage of restaurant workers is of immediate interest to everyone who
enters a restaurant. You not only pay for your food, but your tip helps
to pay the waitress’s salary. It is upon this source of income that she
depends for the greater part of her earnings. Any study of wages in this
branch of industry must take into consideration not only that tips form a
large part of the income of waitresses but that the majority of women get
all their meals at the restaurant, or the equivalent of $3.00 a week in
addition to actual wages.[7] Professor Streightoff has fixed upon $9.00
a week as the minimum amount upon which a girl can live independently in
New York City.[8] Eighty-seven per cent of all women restaurant workers
are being paid less than $9.00, but when food and tips are estimated and
added, the proportion receiving less than a living wage is thirty-one
per cent. While it is true therefore that the majority of workers in
restaurants are earning enough to support themselves, it is a matter for
grave concern that so large a number of women are being forced below the
lowest point at which they can maintain health and decency.
Moreover this $9.00 a week minimum does not allow for saving against
illness, dentist’s bills, unemployment or any other emergency. Taking
$10.00 a week as the least upon which a girl can live and save, we find
that forty-nine per cent. of these women are receiving in actual wages or
their equivalent less than this amount. A few restaurant workers live at
their place of employment, thus receiving lodging as well as board, but
as this is true of only four per cent., the proportion is too small to
affect appreciably the wage scale as a whole.
It is upon the kitchen and pantry hands who make up twenty-eight per
cent. of all the workers that the burden of low wages falls most heavily.
Waitresses have the opportunity to make tips, cooks receive comparatively
fair wages because their work requires a certain amount of skill, but
the other women cannot make tips and their unskilled labor is very poorly
paid. One-third are receiving less than $6.00 a week, and three-fourths
less than $7.00. (See Diagram 9.)
[Illustration:
All workers |UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU 43%
|XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 50%
|OOO 7%
Waitresses |UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU 58%
|XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 38%
|O 2%
Cooks |UUUUU 9%
|XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 59%
|OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 32%
Helpers |UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU 33%
|XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 65%
|O 2%
U under $6
X $6 and under $10
O $10 and over
DIAGRAM 9.—Weekly Wages of Women Employed in Restaurants.]
The income of a restaurant worker is not clear gain. Certain expenses are
involved in the work which she must meet herself. In restaurants where
a special dress is required the waitress must provide her own uniforms,
and she must also either wash them herself, or pay for having them
laundered. Two clean uniforms a week is the usual requirement and in some
cases three. The report of the United States Labor Department estimates
that it costs a girl about $0.63 a week for the laundering of her aprons
alone.[9] It costs $0.25 to have a uniform laundered, which means $1.13
must be deducted from the $3.50 a week usually paid to waitresses in
tea-rooms, where special dresses are always required. In one New York
tea-room the girls must have two sets of uniforms, a white dress with
white shoes, and a blue dress with black shoes. Each uniform costs $2.50.
Fines also eat into the restaurant worker’s earnings. Girls are commonly
fined for lateness, one particular restaurant exacting $0.25 if a girl
is ten minutes late. Her pay is always cut for breakage, and in some
places a certain amount is deducted weekly whether she breaks any dishes
or not. Also, mistakes in adding up checks, either over or under the
correct amount, and mistakes in orders, must be paid for by the waitress.
“Those are the things that make the girls mad,” said one. In one New York
tea-room this summer, a customer was served with hot coffee, when she had
asked for iced tea, the waitress misunderstanding the order. The mistake
was corrected and the iced tea substituted. When the waitress brought the
customer her check, however, both tea and coffee were charged, and the
girl laid down twenty cents upon the table. “You know, we have to pay for
our mistakes,” she said.
What low wages mean in actual living cannot be expressed by figures.
Poor quarters in questionable parts of the city, clothing of the
most utilitarian kind, no money for the pretty things that every
well-constituted girl wants, nothing for recreation, and worst of all,
debts after illness or unemployment which take the very heart out of
a girl in the bitter struggle to pay them off. The proprietor of a
Buffalo employment agency remarked, “Look at the Wants Ads; with the many
factories in Buffalo you will find the list “Help Wanted for Restaurants”
equals that of “Help Wanted for Factory Work,” and what does that
mean?—Simply that the restaurant workers are a discontented lot and all
because of the excessively long hours and low wages.”
[Illustration: DIAGRAM 10.-Comparison of Weekly Wages (black line) and
Weekly Income (dotted line) of Waitresses in Restaurants.]
THE TIPPING SYSTEM.
Tipping is a direct drag upon wages. When the public is perfectly willing
to contribute part of a waitress’s wage, why should not the employer take
advantage of this fact and pay her less? That is surely to be expected
and is almost universally the case. Many girls, accustomed to making a
good deal in tips or “scale,” as they call it, would not be willing to
work for $9.00 a week and no tips, for they can often make more than this
amount. But the better class of girl would prefer a living wage and no
tips. As matters stand now, however, they are a very necessary part of a
girl’s income.
Comparing the weekly wage and the weekly income of waitresses as shown
in Diagram 10, we find that without tips only 8 per cent. make as much
as $9.00 a week, while with tips 50 per cent. receive $9.00 or more.
The custom of tipping has two distinct disadvantages. First, it is an
unreliable source of income. A girl may reasonably expect to make a
certain amount in tips, but she cannot count upon doing so. The danger
here is not only that she will receive less than it is possible for
her to live on, but that she will get into debt, trusting to luck that
her tips will be large enough to get her out. It is very easy to be
over-confident. A tea-room waitress said: “Sometimes I make $12.00 a week
in tips, sometimes almost nothing. You can’t depend on people.” Tea-rooms
are the greatest sinners in respect to making their waitresses depend
upon tips. The usual wage in several of the well-known New York tea-rooms
is $3.50 a week for full time, which is ten or twelve hours a day.
The other aspect of tipping presents a more subtle danger. The girls need
the money and they deliberately work for it, partly by good service, and
partly by adopting an intimate personal tone toward their men customers.
This leads naturally to familiarity on the man’s part and establishes a
personal relation between them. Most of the girls quite frankly admit
making “dates” with strange men. In one restaurant a woman was pointed
out in incredulous admiration by the other waitresses. “Her husband has
been dead four years, and she hasn’t gone out with a man yet,” they said.
These “dates” are made with no thought on the part of the girl beyond
getting the good time which she cannot afford herself, but the outcome
is often a tragedy. The restaurants in one city of the state forbid
unnecessary conversation between waitress and customer because conditions
resulting from the practice became so flagrant. The result of this
custom is that girls are approached to whom any attention from their men
customers is most distasteful. The report of the United States Bureau of
Labor Statistics says: “Many of the waitresses complain of the annoying
attention of male customers. Many girls said, however, that if they speak
sharply to a customer or offend him, they are likely to be reprimanded by
the head waitress and may even lose their position.”[10]
The Juvenile Protective Association of Chicago considers tipping a
vicious system. “The giving of tips should be abolished because of their
pernicious effect. A young girl who under any other circumstances would
not dream of accepting money from a man will accept it in the guise of a
tip. In the hands of a vicious man this tip establishes between him and
the girl a relation of subserviency and patronage which may easily be
made the beginning of improper attentions. The most conscientious girl,
dependent upon tips to eke out her slender wage, finds it difficult to
determine just where the line of propriety is crossed. Thus, in addition
to the other dangers surrounding the girls employed in hotels and
restaurants, they encounter the lack of respect which curiously attaches
itself to one who accepts a gratuity.”[11]
[Illustration:
+------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| no time unemployed XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 45% |
| less than 2 weeks XXXXXXX 14% |
| 2 weeks and less than 1 month XXXXXX 13% |
| 1 month and less than 3 months XXXXXXXX 15% |
| 3 months and over XXXXXX 13% |
| |
+------------------------------------------------------------+
DIAGRAM 11.—Length of Time Unemployed in Past Year.[12]]
IRREGULARITY OF EMPLOYMENT.
Closely connected with the question of wages is the possibility of being
out of a job. If a girl is earning $10.00 a week she may be able, with
the most careful saving, to lay aside enough to tide her over two or
three weeks of unemployment. But the savings from a $10.00 weekly wage do
not last long. Twenty-eight per cent. of these women were out of work one
month or longer in the past year because of the slack season, illness,
change of their place of employment or for some other reason. The girl
who cannot save is in a desperate condition indeed. For her, prolonged
unemployment means debt, heart breaking anxiety and dependence.
Girls in restaurant work do not get vacations with pay except in very
rare instances. One well-known New York firm having tea-rooms in various
parts of the city, is to be congratulated on the fact that it does give
its waitresses a vacation with pay. A few of the married women, or those
who have families to care for them, can afford to take time out of the
year’s work for a rest. But when a girl is not working, it is for the
most part a matter of stern necessity and inevitably means a time of
struggle and suffering.
Restaurants do not labor under the difficulties of seasonal employment.
We should expect to find a steadiness in this occupation which the facts
do not bear out. It is therefore evident that the instability of the
work and constant shifting is due to the unsatisfactory nature of the
employment itself. The large proportion of workers out of employment for
one month or more a year (20%) is striking evidence of this fact.
[Illustration:
+---------------------------------------------+
| |
| less than 1 year XXXXXXXXOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |
| 10 years and over XXXXXXXXXXXXOOOOOOOOOOOO |
| |
+---------------------------------------------+
_KEY_
X less than $6
O $6 or over
DIAGRAM 12.—Weekly Wages of Women Employed in Restaurants according to
Length of Time in this Occupation.]
LACK OF OPPORTUNITY IN RESTAURANT WORK.
Restaurant work is a “blind alley” trade. There is little opportunity for
development or advancement. What training is necessary can be acquired
in a few weeks, and the only position to which a girl can look forward
is that of head waitress. There are no recognized degrees of skill in
any part of the work connected with a restaurant. On the contrary, the
tendency is in the direction of wearing girls out by overstrain rather
than of giving them a chance. The girls who have been in the work the
shortest time get higher pay than those who have been in it longest.
Sixty-five per cent. of those who had been working less than a year were
getting $6.00 or more a week, while only fifty-five per cent. of those
who had been working over ten years were receiving as much. (See Diagram
12.) The woman who remains in restaurant work for more than a few years
gradually loses her strength and ability, and can get a position only
with an inferior type of restaurant, where the necessity for having a job
forces her to accept whatever wage is offered her.
SUMMARY OF STUDY.
The law has declared illegal the employment of women in mercantile
establishments longer than fifty-four hours or six days in any one week,
on the ground that a working day of more than nine hours, or a working
week of more than six days, is prejudicial to the health of the worker
and therefore to the welfare of society. It has also declared illegal
the employment of these women at night and it safeguards their interests
further by insisting upon a definite period for the mid-day meal.
Fifty-eight per cent. (58%) of the women employed in restaurants exceed
the fifty-four hour limit, twenty per cent. (20%) work twelve hours a day
and four per cent. (4%) are employed at night. One-third do not have one
day of rest in seven, and the majority are not allowed time off for their
meals. Do not these women also need the protection of the law?
Restaurant work has much in common with work in mercantile
establishments. Continuous standing and walking and the nervous strain
entailed in serving many customers are features of both occupations.
Besides this, restaurant work necessitates the lifting and carrying of
heavy weights which may easily be disastrous not only to the worker
herself, but to her children. Dr. Harris has expressly stated his belief
that such work will injure the reproductive organs of a women unless she
is guarded from overstrain. The larger proportion of restaurant workers
are girls and young women, who are peculiarly susceptible to overstrain
because of their youth.
There is abundant evidence from the testimony of the girls themselves
that restaurant work is a severe tax and that the need for limiting
hours of labor is strongly felt among them. Here are quoted a few of the
remarks made by them, which could be duplicated many times:
“I think it’s a shame to let a woman work twelve hours a day. I’m so
tired at night I can’t do anything but go to bed.”
“I can’t keep a job longer than four months because I get so nervous.”
“This is my second week and I’m nearly dead, the hours are so long.”
“It would be the grandest thing in the world if they could do away with
the twelve-hour day.”
To resist the unavoidable strain of the work, the restaurant worker must
be in a normal, healthy state of mind and body. Our responsibility lies
in seeing to it that conditions are such as to make this possible.
The results of fatigue do not end with the individual. It is common
knowledge that health depends upon the power to resist disease. The
person who has overworked is not only subject to the devastating action
of fatigue poisons, but is a prey to any infections to which he may
be exposed because he cannot throw them off. Working conditions which
render large numbers of men and women susceptible to disease, and hence
capable of spreading it, are a public menace. To allow such conditions to
continue unchecked is inexcusable negligence.
These facts point directly to the crying need for the limitation of hours
for women in restaurants, that the individual worker may be protected
from overstrain, that the community may be guarded from the spread of
contagious disease by people predisposed to infection through fatigue,
and that the children of these women may be strong and capable of
becoming useful citizens.
It must be conceded that the difficulty of regulating hours in
restaurants is much greater than in mercantile establishments.
Restaurants must be open for a longer period each day than any store
needs to be or is likely to be. But the difficulties are not insuperable.
By working the employees in shifts of nine consecutive hours a day and
six days a week, and by replacing women by men for night duty, the most
undesirable features of restaurant work would be abolished. Such a plan
has already been tried successfully in a number of New York restaurants,
proving that it is possible and feasible to regulate hours.