BEHIND THE SCENES
IN A

HOTEL

PUBLISHED — FEBRUARY,

1922

BY

The Consumers' League of New York
289 FOURTH AVENUE
NEW YORK CITY

B E H I N D T H E SCENES IN A HOTEL
The modern hotel industry, claimed by the 35th Convention
of the New York Hotel Association to be the fifth largest industry in the United States, is of comparaGrawth of the
tively recent growth. It is true that from
hotel industry
the earliest times there have been inns and
small hostels for the accommodation of the
wayfarer. But this accommodation was the simple provision
of board and lodging. The host and his family ran the house
much as the modern boarding and rooming house is run. Until the late nineteenth century these houses, small and few in
number, were usually at stage-coach changes along the road.
W i t h the great increase in travel, stimulated by the growth
of steam railroads, hotels sprang up in great numbers and
tended to concentrate in large centers of population. The invention of the elevator and the use of fireproof materials have
made possible the construction of gigantic modern edifices.
In the last few decades, under these conditions, more and more
capital has been attracted to the industry until today there
are 40,000 hotels, large and small, in the United States.
The individual hotel has developed into a complex institution, often of colossal size, supplying board and lodging on a
most luxurious scale. In all parts of New York State, particularly in the smaller cities and towns, the small hotel with
the inn tradition, with a simple table d'hote service at one
rate, still exists. But the tendency in New York City and in
first and second class cities of the State has been toward a
rapid expansion in the size of the individual establishment
with an elaboration of service, and a specialization of hotel
types. In the larger cities of the State, there are hotels with
450 or more rooms; in New York City there are many hotels
with from 1000 to 2000 rooms. The largest hotel in New
York, "the largest hotel in the world," by its own advertisement, contains 2200 rooms and 2200 baths. In answer to the
special needs of special groups, different types of hotels have

4
sprung up—the commercial-transient hotel which supplies
complete, efficient but unelaborate service, the apartment
house and family hotel with additional comforts and luxuries
for residents of a longer period, the ultra-fashionable hotel,
and the hotel that specializes in banquets, conventions and
other social functions. No distinct classification holds, for
there is usually an overlapping of types.
As the individual hotel has grown, hotel corporations and
syndicates have developed. In New York City the largest,
most complete hotels, almost without exception, are operated
by hotel corporations. Two companies are each managing
five of the largest hotels. Another company manages five
hotels, two of which are in first class cities of New York State
and three in other states. One company manages a group
of fifteen smaller family hotels in New York City. Four
hotels in four different up-state cities are managed by still
another company. These corporation managers have united
to form the New York State Hotel Men's Association and
the Hotel Association of New York City for discussion of
standards of operation. This exchange of opinion has resulted in the turning of hotel managers' thoughts to
standards and policies in regard to labor, though as yet little
of a concrete nature has been accomplished.
The labor force required to furnish service in the modern
hotel has necessarily increased enormously since the day when
the host of the old-time hostel and his
The labor force in
family personally cared for the needs of
the modern hotel
their guests. The following extract
from a hotel manager's pamphlet on the
running of big hotels gives some idea of the problems of labor
management: "The operation of a single metropolitan hotel
is too complex an undertaking to be likened to a gigantic piece
of housekeeping. When it comes to running a group of six
of the largest hotels in the world * * * the performance
becomes of colossal size. The idea of employing 510 men
just to cook food and another 925 just to wait on table, finding
need at the same time to call in an average of 3000 waiters a
month to help out on banquets, requiring 380 chambermaids

5
to make beds and so on, must strike one pretty much as indicative of doing business on a wholesale scale."
Hotel managers, however, have been too prone to treat
their business as housekeeping on a big scale. The transition
from the small home industry with a few paying guests has
been too rapid for adjustment to large scale method and
standards. The attention of the hotel management, so far,
has been directed toward standards of service to the public.
It has only begun to think of standardization of conditions of
employment for workers. It is perhaps the most backward
and unregulated of industries from the point of view of wages,
hours and living conditions, and comparable only with domestic service. It is one of the few industries which continues
to house its employees as a part of the wage payment. It is
one of the few industries in which tipping or the giving of
gratuities to workers by the public persists.
There are inherent in the business certain definite obstacles to standardization of labor conditions. The most serious
of these is that it is an almost continuous industry where
work is carried on for eighteen of the twenty-four hours with
peaks of greater volume throughout the day. The hotel
managers, however, have not as yet put their best effort into
solving this problem and to working out standardized conditions of employment.
Because for many years it has been aware of the long hours
and living-in conditions in hotels, the Consumers' League
of New York undertook a study of the
The reason for
hotel industry in the summer and fall
the investigation of 1921 to discover the hours, wages,
working and living conditions for women
workers in the hotels of New York State.
The material used in the report was obtained by the investigators through their personal experience in working in
typical women's jobs in the hotel indusThe method used
try and by applying for work in a numin the investigation ber of occupations in hotels and hotel
employment offices. The material is
necessarily incomplete and uneven though supplemented

6
wherever possible by interviews with workers in the industry,
officials and members of labor unions, employment agencies,
etc. The report on wages, hours, and living-in conditions is
a statement of the facts and conditions found in the hotels
covered.
For the purpose of this investigation a hotel was defined,
according to the American Travel and Hotel Directory, as
"any building or structure of the better
The scope of the
class (whose minimum sized bedrooms
investigation
are at least 50^ a night) used or maintained in whole or part for the entertainment of the traveling public or persons of temporary residence ; with sleeping rooms furnished for hire with or without
meals and (in order not to be confused with lodging or rooming house) maintaining an office or lobby register."
T h e scope of the investigation was necessarily limited because of the general condition of unemployment in other industries which turned many women to hotel work. The
selection of hotels for the study, therefore, depended in a
large measure upon the chance availability of jobs for the
investigators. An attempt was made, however, to obtain work
or apply for work in hotels as representative of the industry
as possible. Hotels ranging in size from 25 to 2200 rooms
were selected. The commercial hotel, the family apartment
type, hotels featuring conventions and social functions—both
transient and residential hotels were included. No resort or
seasonal hotels were chosen.
it was found that the hotel industry centers in cities according to their size. The cities of New York State were
classified according to population into first class cities of over
175,000; second class cities of from 50,000 to 175,000; and
third class cities of less than 50,000 population. It proved to
be far more difficult to secure employment in second and third
class cities than in first class cities. In smaller centers this
was in part due to the greater stability of the labor force and
in the case of industrial cities to the unemployment situation.
In cities of a few controlling industries, which had closed
down, the hotel housekeepers invariably answered an inquiry

7
for work with the statement that the works had shut down
and so they had long waiting lists for all jobs.
The investigators applied for work in 96 hotels in New York
State.
First class cities
Buffalo
12
New York and Brooklyn 25
10
Rochester

47

Second class cities
Albany
Binghamton
Schenectady
Syracuse
Utica
Third class cities
Elmira
Hudson
Ithaca
Kingston
Newburgh
Troy
Oswego
Poughkeepsie

28

Total

7
3
4
8
6

21
2
2
2
2
3
4
2
4

96

Work was secured in sixteen hotels, fourteen of which were
in first class cities, one in Rochester, two in Buffalo, and
eleven in New York and Brooklyn. One job was secured in
Syracuse, a second class city, and one in Troy, a city of the
third class.
It is impossible to give the exact percentage of women to
men employed in hotels. A recent survey has been made,
however, by the United States Bureau of
Occupations
Labor Statistics of hotels and restaurants
Covered
in 26 cities. This report shows that 40%
of the employees in hotels and restaurants
are women.* The percentage for hotels alone would undoubtedly be larger because men are usually employed as waiters
•United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. Wages of Hotel and Restaurant Employees. 1919. (Advance Release 486, Sept. 31, 1921.)

8
in the larger restaurants and in restaurants there is no large
group of women chambermaids as in hotels.
Of the women in hotels, 56% are in the housekeeping department; 23% in the kitchen, dining room and pantry departments; and 20% in miscellaneous departments.* The
miscellaneous departments comprise office employees, laundry workers, elevator, telephone and telegraph operators,
seamstresses, wrap checkers and newsstand salesgirls. They
have been excluded from this study on the ground that they
are not typical of the hotel industry and may be studied under
their respective occupations. Since newsstands and checking
rooms are usually concessions, the investigators felt they
could not be adequately dealt with but should be separately
investigated.
More than half of the women workers in hotels are employed in the housekeeping department. 40.2% of the women
in hotels are chambermaids, 10% cleaners or bathmaids, 2%
linen room girls and 3.8% housekeepers.* Housekeepers
have been excluded from this study because of the small percentage and the difficulty in securing information. The study
of the housekeeping department, therefore, is confined to
chambermaids, cleaners, bathmaids and linen room workers.
The investigators worked in 14 jobs in the housekeeping department as chambermaid, bathmaid and linen room worker.
In the kitchen, cooks and assistant cooks are excluded on
the ground of number. The information in the kitchen, dining
room and pantry departments is, therefore, confined to
waitresses and pantry workers. Two jobs were obtained in
the kitchen as pantry worker. No work could be obtained
as a waitress. All information regarding waitresses was secured from interviews with workers.
During the war the hotels of New York City found that
advertisements, private fee-charging employment agencies
and bulletins posted at the employees' enLabor
trance, were bringing in inadequate returns.
Recruiting
The New York City Hotel Men's Association,
therefore, opened its own free employment
bureau, which served as a clearing house for all jobs open in
•Minimum Wage Board of the District of Columbia. Wages of Women
in Hotels and Restaurants. 1919. P. 10.

9
hotels belonging to the Association in New York City. One
hotel company opened its own employment bureau to recruit
workers for the five hotels under its management. This
proved to be a temporary expedient only, to be used at a time
when the hotels were in need of workers. When unemployment, due to the industrial depression, grew, the free employment bureaus were discontinued. This was at a time when
the workers most needed them. The basis for the closing of
the employment bureaus was voiced by one employment manager, " W e don't need to do that now; we have a long line at
the door every day for every job."
At present there is a return to the use of the advertisement
and private employment agency. The old, unintelligent
method of hiring the first worker in line after a casual interview, whether or not more suitable candidates may be available, is again the practice. In all but five of the hotels in
which work was applied for the timekeeper and the head of
the department interviewed the worker. It is true that some
of the larger hotels in New York City under the control of
big hotel corporations have developed employment departments. The employment managers have no labor policy, however. They are little more than clerks. They receive calls
from the heads of departments and refer workers to them as
they apply. No central record is kept. No job specifications
have been worked out and no record is kept of the workers
who leave. Even where there are employment managers the
actual hiring is done by the heads of departments whose attitude is only too often, "These girls won't stay long anyway,
so it doesn't much matter who is hired."
The following example illustrates how unintelligently an
interview can be carried on by a housekeeper who was apparently an excellent manager of her department in other
respects. The bad psychology and entire lack of employment
technique in the interview is obvious. T h e interview took
place in a first class hotel of a first class city in New York
State. The girl waited for three-quarters of an hour outside
the linen room. Finally, the housekeeper, a robust, emphatic
person, came up the stairs. The girl took the initiative:

10

"Are you the housekeeper ?"
"Yes," in a forbidding tone.
"Do you need any chambermaids?" She gave the girl
an appraising look. She seemed to suspend judgment
temporarily.
"Why, yes," she replied ungraciously, "I do need a
steady girl. Are you a floater?"
"No, I'm not a floater," was the quick reply suggested
to the girl. The housekeeper looked skeptical, but
went on.
"Where've you worked?"
"
in Albany."
"Oh," and she registered faint satisfaction, "that's the
same management as this hotel," then, hardening again,
"and did you get tired of that?"
"Oh, no," replied the candidate, quick to get her cue,
"I liked it. I had to leave when we moved away from
there." The housekeeper was mollified.
"You live here now?"
"Yes, I'm goin' to. I ain't got any people. I come from
Lake George," showing she was a floater after all.
"You sure you ain't a floater and you'll come Sundays,
every Sunday and take your night watches?" suggesting
to the girl that she will expect her to be skipping Sunday
and watches. "Well, wages is $10.50 a week, live out,
hours 8-3 with night watch every 20th night from 6 to 11
P. M. When can you start?"
"Tomorrow."
"All right, now don't go back on me, will you?" implying that the girls usually do.
Then, as an afterthought, "What's your name?"
"Minnie
, ma'am."
"All right, Minnie, 8 o'clock tomorrow. Now don't you
go back on me, mind!"
Now that the hotels' employment agency is
open, a girl setting out to look for a job in a
hotel first looks over
Getting a job in a hotel
Wanted" column in the
World. There she may
tisements such as these:

no longer
New York
the "Help
New York
find adver-

II

Wanted:
Chambermaid, with hotel experience, call before
10 A. M. Hotel
; Live in.
Wanted:
Waitress, young girl, call before 10 A. M.
tel
.

Ho-

Details are seldom given regarding wages or hours. If she is
experienced she has a notion as to which are "good houses , ,
so she rates the hotels in her mind and starts out early Monday morning to apply to them for a job.
Failing to find advertisements in the paper—and she does
fail very often, for the labor supply in hotels is abundant—
she makes the rounds of hotels, tipped off by a friend as to
the best places to work. Or she joins the throng which files
in and out of the hotel agencies on Sixth Avenue. The agency
is usually on the second or third floor of a building with its
sign in the doorway on the street floor. Under the sign are
daily bulletin boards where the agency posts the "Jobs Open
Today." On the one side are jobs for men, on the other jobs
for women. The girl stops to pour over these with a motley
crew of women, young and old, trim and slattern, of all nationalities.
"Pantry girl
Waitress
Chambermaid

$40 a month
$30 a month
$25 a month

Live in
Live in
Live in,"

she reads. If she finds anything to interest her, she ascends
the several flights of dark stairs leading to the agency offices.
She finds the employment agency divided into two parts, the
men's department and the women's department. Behind a
railing at one end is the interviewer of women, seated at a
desk, talking to applicants one by one. In front of the railing
in groups sit the candidates for jobs. There are neat
waitresses, pretty Irish chambermaids, intelligent, mature
pantry women, buxom Italian cooks, fat little bathmaids and
cleaners, who are beginning to despair of getting a job anywhere. Conversation is animated and loud, often in brogue

12

and broken English. I t concerns disputes between house*
keepers and maids, the awful hours and food in some hotels,
the Irish question, prohibition, and how foreigners are taking
girls' jobs.
Finally the interviewer turns and says, "Come on in. W h a t
are you looking for?" and she tells the candidate what jobs
she has open and that she must obligate herself to pay the
agency 10 per cent of her first month's salary if she gets a job
through it. Then the girl gets a card from the interviewer
directing her to a job. The employment office is not careful
to conserve the worker's time or money. It is a commercial
institution bent on profit. I t sends her out to a hotel which
wanted a chambermaid yesterday or early in the morning,
without first telephoning to find out if the job is still open. It
even "books" her for a job out-of-town with the most meager
information regarding conditions in the hotel, although the
worker is required to sign a contract to stay for a definite
period of time. So she often finds herself, after visiting the
agency, with a day lost, carfare lost and nothing gained, or a
job secured which she finds it is impossible to keep because
of some unknown disadvantages.
The hotel worker reflects, therefore, before going on a job
recommended by the agency, deterred also by the 10 per cent
fee. She will look around for herself and return here as a
last resort. So she goes the round of the individual hotels
again. When she reaches a hotel she walks to the rear hunting the employees' entrance. It is not hard to distinguish. I t
is indicated by an opening in the sidewalk and a, steeply
descending flight of iron steps, often circular, leading to the
basement or second basement. These are often slippery and
dark. They lead into an ill-lighted passage at the bottom,
littered with storeroom supplies, old bottles, casks, bags of
potatoes, etc. She has not made much progress before she is
hailed by the timekeeper from his cage behind the time clock
near the door.
"Hey, what do you want," he calls, "a job?" Sometimes
he is scarcely so civil. She states her errand; she wants a
job as a chambermaid, a waitress or a pantry girl, as the case
may be. Sometimes she meets absolute discouragement from

13

the timekeeper. Sometimes he is more good-natured and directs her to the housekeeper or the steward and shows her
the way to the elevator. So she continues along the passage,
dodging puddles and dripping pipes.
If she is a chambermaid, she goes to the housekeeper's
office or the linen room. There she sits on a bench outside
the door waiting audience along with other applying bathmaids and cleaners,—talking again about how awful it is to
work in a hotel. When she does see the housekeeper, she is
greeted with a roughly appraising look.
"Hotel experience ?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Where?" and "how long?"
But it is her appearance which counts, not her experience.
If the candidate is young and nice looking, undeformed, and
there is a job open, she will get it. If she is older and getting
fat, all the experience in the world will do her no good. Her
looks demote her to the bathmaid class and she will find it
hard to get a job as that. So she is casual in giving her experience and she is casually hired. She doesn't learn much
about the wages and hours or about the food and the room
she is to have if she is to live in.
The girl decides to try it out for herself to see if it is "a
good house for tips, how much you can pick up from the floor,
what the watches are, how hard they work you, and what the
grub and rooms are like." If she doesn't make out she'll
leave—it doesn't much matter. She would do something else
if she got half a chance—but she'll stick to this awhile anyway.
During the first few days in the hotel, she is shoved about
and utterly lost. Perhaps no one even asks her name for
several days. She doesn't know where
Learning the ways her "station" or her "floor" is and how
of the hotel
much territory it covers. She doesn't
know where the time clock is, where
to get her meal ticket, where meals are served, where the
toilets ar^d dressing rooms are, where to get supplies and bed
linen. She fumbles about "lost like" until she learns for her-

14

self. Sometimes she grows discouraged and leaves in the first
few days. Sometimes she finds a friend who shows her
around, takes her down to lunch, tells her what the rules are,
and introduces her to her friends.
There were, of course, a few exceptions. In several cases
rules and regulations were posted in linen closets and pantries
and occasionally the housekeeper would put a new worker in
charge of another girl to learn the rules. All hotels required
the new worker to sign a contract stating that she would
obey the rules of the establishment and would allow her baggage to be searched. The contracts seemed meaningless in
that in most cases the workers had no way of knowing what
the rules and regulations of the hotel were.
As for learning her job, "You're experienced, aren't you?
Well, then, you know what to do," and the housekeeper dismisses all responsibility. The idea that
The training of
any woman knows how to do chamber
new employees
work or cleaning is prevalent in the housekeeping department. The girl is left to
work alone, then scolded for her mistakes or even discharged
without notice. One worker was turned out at 4 o'clock in
the afternoon with no money and another girl put in her bed
that night because the housekeeper "didn't like the way she
swept." In a few exceptional cases the housekeeper taught
the new girls by the "you watch me" method.
The failure of hotels to train their employees was pointed
out by the United States Federal Board of Vocational Education which had been requested by the American Hotel Association to make an investigation of the possibilities for vocational training in the industry. The report points out that the
hotel industry has developed so fast from a home industry
that managers have not perfected their organization. Department heads have not been instructed that one of their functions is the training of new workers. The report stresses the
fact that training must be based on a clear definition of jobs
and that jobs have not yet been analyzed by the management.
"As hotel men pay more attention to training and promotion
of deserving employees, there will be greater inducement to

i5

capable young people to enter the business. Such opportunities for training and promotion will also lessen the turnover
of labor and consequently lessen the cost of operation."* In
New York State there seems little indication that hotels have
profited by this report.
There was no such thing as a transfer or promotion policy
in hotels where work was obtained. The nearest approach
to it was found in one hotel where in the
Transfers and
housekeeping department women were somePromotion
times taken on as bathmaids at $25 a
month and later became chambermaids at
$28 a month. There their advancement ceased. Some hotels
have rules that no chambermaids may be promoted to linen
room workers. There was no cooperation between departments in transferring workers from one department to another.
*L. S. Hawkins, representing the Federal Board of Vocational Education. Vocational Education in the Hotel Business, A Report to the American Hotel Association of the United States and Canada. P. 10.

i6

HOURS
One of the most important conditions of work to the woman
hotel employee is the number and distribution of the hours
she works. As the hotel industry is a continuous one, most
departments operate 18 out of the 24 hours. Within these 18
hours, as has already been pointed out, there are peaks of
work when a larger force is necessary. Broken shifts and
long and short working days are the result. The working
days are made even more irregular by lack of regular lunch
periods and regular closing time for those workers who live in
in the hotel.
The length and distribution of hours is so different for the
different departments that it is necessary to discuss the housekeeping department and the kitchen, pantry and dining room
departments separately.

Housekeeping Department
The function of the housekeeping department in a hotel is
the housing of guests. It has sole charge of the bedroom
floors. The function of the women workers in this department is to clean the bedrooms and corridors, to change the
linen on the beds, to dust and sweep, supply fresh towels and
soap and care for the baths, private and public. The bulk of
this work falls in the daylight hours when guests have risen
and gone about their business. In the large transient hotels,
however, guests are coming into the hotel and leaving it
until midnight. Part of the workers must, therefore, be on
hand to attend to the incidental wants of the guests and make
up new rooms at night.
The women employed in greatest numbers in the housekeeping department are the chambermaids, who clean rooms
and make the beds, the bathmaids, who clean and scrub out
the bathrooms and corridors and the special cleaners. Of
these, the bathmaids' and cleaners' work falls in fairly regular
shifts. Bathmaids work a day shift and cleaners, in the big
hotels, work a day and a night shift. Chambermaids, on the
other hand, have night work distributed among them according to the needs of the establishment.

17

The work of the bathmaids and the cleaners is, perhaps, the
hardest women have to do in hotels. All day long they scrub
out wash basins, tubs and toilets,
Bathmaids , and
polish brass, and mop up floors on
cleaners' hours
their hands and knees. Their work
is of fairly uniform intensity. It is
"humiliating work," as one bathmaid said, and for this reason
the higher type of maid refuses to take it. The hours of the
bathmaids are, however, the best in the housekeeping department. This has led some chambermaids in spite of prejudice
against the work to prefer bathmaids* jobs. In thirteen
hotels in which work was obtained in the housekeeping department bathmaids worked a nine-hour day or less. The
hours of work fell between 7.30 and 5 o'clock. In two hotels,
they worked 8j4-hour days, 7 hotels a 7 ^ - h o u r day, in 3
hotels a 7-hour day and in one hotel a 6 ^ - h o u r day.* Lunch
periods were unstandardized, as most of the bathmaids ate
in the hotels.
The special cleaners worked the same daily hours as bathmaids. In some hotels there was a squad of night cleaners
also who worked from 6 P. M. to 12 midnight, and in the
largest hotels there was another shift working from 12 midnight until 7 A. M. No information could be secured concerning these night shifts.
The weekly hours for bathmaids in the hotels varied from
45 to 54 hours. In five of the nine hotels for which weekly
hours were obtained bathmaids were required to work from
45 to 50 hours a week and in four hotels from 50 to 54 hours
a week. The weekly hours for bathmaids are long in spite
of a fairly short working day because they work a seven-day
week. The Sunday hours are shorter than hours for week
days, varying from $y2 to 7 hours. Sunday work for bathmaids seems unnecessary. The guests stay in their rooms late
Sunday morning and do not wish to be disturbed by cleaning.
Bathmaids are used to clean outmaids' closets and corridors
and to take the places of the chambermaids who have failed
to report for Sunday work. Because they have no regular
*The hours given are exclusive of the lunch period. One-half hour has
been deducted in computing the daily hour schedules.

i8

work to do on Sunday, bathmaids highly resent the imposition of Sunday work. As their work is of an especially
fatiguing nature they believe they are entitled to one day of
rest. "It's mean to call you in on Sunday and keep you sitting around when you might be home resting or off having a
good time, ,, they would say. In three of the hotels bathmaids
were given two days off a month or every other Sunday.
The large majority of workers in the housekeeping department are chambermaids. The hours of work for chambermaids are the most unstandardized
Chambermaids' Hours
of those of any occupation in the
hotel. They vary greatly from establishment to establishment. Different maids in the same
hotel work different hours, and hours differ for each maid on
successive days of the week. This has made it difficult to give
a general statement of the working hours of chambermaids.
In transient hotels chambermaids work a daily shift in
which they change the linen, dust, and sweep in an assigned
number of rooms. This work falls within a fairly regular
period. In addition they take turns at being on watch in the
morning from 7 o'clock to 8, in the afternoon from 4 to 6
o'clock, and at night from 6 to 12 o'clock, or 6 to 10, according
to the establishment. Maids have an irregular lunch period
also, except a small minority in a few hotels who were found
to take an hour and go home. The workers leave the floor
in many hotels when they have finished their daily work often
several hours earlier than the leaving time scheduled. On
the other hand, they are often kept beyond the scheduled leaving hour because there is a shortage of linen and they must
wait for it in order to make up their rooms.
Extra shifts or watches occur in frequencies of from one
watch every twentieth night to one watch every morning,
afternoon or evening. In two hotels no night watch for the
regular chambermaids occurred. A relief watch of maids was
added to the staff to work from 6 to 12 o'clock. In one of the
hotels this was installed as an economy measure. In several
other hotels night watches were made optional and extra pay
was received by a maid for each watch taken. Under this sys-

19
tern some maids, in order to increase their earnings, might
overtax their strength. Night watch in the smaller cities
lasted only until 10 o'clock and occurred at less frequent intervals.
When a girl complains of long hours, the housekeeper
usually replies that there is a nice short day on Sunday. The
maids do not take this as a great consolation, for they regard
one full day's rest in seven as their right. In all but two
hotels in which jobs were held, a straight seven-day week
was worked by all chambermaids. The Sunday hours were
shorter, workers usually leaving at 2 P. M. instead of 4 P. M.
In the other two hotels two days off each month were allowed.
These days off were most irregularly given, however, at the
discretion of the housekeeper. If there was a shortage of
maids, there were no days off. One worker in one of these
hotels said she had been there two months and had worked
every day.
In 12 of the 14 hotels* in which jobs were obtained as chambermaids the regular daily shift varied from 6y2 hours to 8^4
hours, exclusive of the lunch period. The regular weekly
shifts varied from 45^2 to 59J4 hours. But the extra shifts
make the weekly hours worked by chambermaids excessively
long. The average number of hours worked weekly in "extra
watches" varied from none to 21.04 hours. The actual working hours for chambermaids, by which is meant the regular
weekly hours plus the average number of extra hours each
week, in the 12 hotels, are as follows:
49.38
50.16
50.75
50.94
52.50
52.50

54-50
56.70
59-27
60.90
66.54
70.03

In no case is a 48-hour week found, and it can be seen that in
over half of the hotels chambermaids worked more than 54
hours.
*Two hotels have been omitted from the analysis of hours because of
inadequate information on extra shifts.

20

I
a

i

21

The chart on the opposite page shows the weekly hours
actually worked by chambermaids in one sample hotel in New
York City. Beside her regular hours the chambermaid had
the morning watch from 7 to 8 A. M., with time allowed for
her to run down and eat her breakfast. The second day there
was a long watch from 6 P. M. to 12 P. M., the following day
a short afternoon watch from 4 to 6 P. M., and every third
afternoon after four o'clock she had to herself.
Linen room workers worked a long and short day. They
usually reported at 8 o'clock and worked until 11 or 12 o'clock
one day. They were then off
Hours of linen room workers
until 6 and worked until 12
midnight. The next day
they worked from 12 noon to 6 P. M.
In all hotels where "extra watches" were worked the maids
felt the strain of the excessive hours. On days on which
an extra watch from 6 to 12 was
Physical effects of exworked, a maid was on her feet
cessive hours of work
from 8 to 4, then with two hours'
respite from 6 to 12, or 14 hours a
day, with short intervals off for meals. She came to her work
the next day with dragging step and a listless air, complaining that she never got rested. Her habits of life were disturbed by the irregularity of hours for succeeding days. She
snatched sleep when she could. After work maids always
went to their rooms to rest until supper time. Workers
living out frequently kept beds in the hotel on which to
snatch sleep. The work is indoors in an overheated hotel.
Excessive hours prevent the maids from getting sufficient
exercise in the fresh air. I t is impossible to keep in good
physical condition under such working conditions. The maids
age prematurely. "Oh, you think I am an old woman. I am
only thirty. You'll look like me, too, if you stay here long."
Similar statements were made by several of the maids. The
bathmaids particularly were a jaded and fatigued group of
women workers. The older ones in New York City were

22

bent from constant stooping. Even strong, young Polish
girls, who were frequently found working as bathmaids in
up-state cities, were so tired out at night that they spent their
evenings lying on their beds.
The complaint of maids regarding hours of work was general. In several hotels there had been an organized protest
to the manager against a seven-day week. In one hotel, with
the help of a union, maids were organized and the night watch
was abolished. ' For the most part, however, complaint took
the form of individual grumbling, dissatisfaction, and changing of jobs. One worker greeted a new worker as she came
into her bedroom sick after a night watch on a very hot night,
"They work you like dogs here, you better not stay." "I was
so tired last night I could have cried," said another worker.
"My feet were all swollen this morning. These night watches
will kill me yet." Many complained of sore feet and varicose
veins from continual standing. Of the seven-day week, one
young maid said, "You don't mind so much in the winter
time, but in the summer to see everybody going off to the
country and you working all day indoors in a hot, stuffy hotel,
with never a day to go anywhere or see your family—it's
terrible."

The hotel which installed a relief night shift for chambermaids as an economy measure, was wise. After observing
the overtired, listless maids skimp
Effect of long hours
their work the day following a long
on efficiency
night watch, one cannot but conclude that long hours of work for
women are a bad business policy. The tired worker not only
does poor work herself, but she demoralizes the other more
alert workers on the force, "Just make up the beds with the
sheets that's on 'em. Those people aren't going out today
anyway. Give the rooms a lick and a promise, I say. I'm
tired today," is often heard while the maids are eating lunch.
A feeling of resentment against long hours tends to make the
workers dissatisfied and careless about their work. All feeling of responsibility for good work is diminished accordingly.

^3
In order to mollify maids, housekeepers allow them to leave
their stations as soon as they have covered the work on their
daily shift. This makes for hastily finished work and a further unstandardized day. It means that, instead of all maids
getting a regular number of hours off duty, clever and unscrupulous individuals steal time at the expense of others.
The effect of long hours on attendance is marked. Maids
frequently take days off without pay. Some make a practice
of turning up for Sunday work several times a month only.
And after the continued strain of some months of night
watches and seven-day week work, maids feel they "need a
vacation and a change" and leave their jobs.
Maids who live in a hotel go out little unless they are very
young. After working hours they lie on their beds and sleep
or gossip. When they do leave the
Effect of long hours
hotel it is either to go to mass or
on recreation
to find some exciting form of amusement. The younger girls made
"dates" casually with guests and other men to go to the
movies and Coney Island. Girls who are more backward had
often been nowhere outside the hotel, except to church. A
Danish girl, who was working in a large New York City
hotel, said she knew no one in New York City and had not
been anywhere except to go to church with another maid one
Sunday and she wouldn't go there again because they all
laughed at her when she took off her hat. She said she was
too tired to go to the movies at night because these night
watches were "fierce"—she was just tired all the time. She
worked in one of the hotels which had an extra watch every
day. Another worker, a young Polish bathmaid, complained,
"I am too tired to ever go home and see my people any more
at night. I used to go every other night and I get awful
lonesome for them now, but I just can't get cleaned up and
dress." This girl was sixteen and had been working as a
bathmaid for three months. Another young bathmaid said,
"I am too tired to ever go to dances. I just want to rest at
night. I can't stand it anyway, it's too hard."

24

Dining-Room, Kitchen and Pantry Departments
The work of the waitress in a hotel reaches its peak at meal
hours and slackens between times. For this reason waitresses
work "broken shifts." The daily and
Waitresses' Hours
weekly hours of the waitresses interviewed were not as unstandardized
or as excessive in length as hours for chambermaids. They
worked a six-day week in all cases. But the distribution of
hours of work in broken shifts caused great inconvenience to
the workers. Those who lived in were apathetic but those
who lived out and wished to return home after hours of work
complained bitterly. If the worker lives any distance from
the hotel it is impossible for her to change her clothes twice,
allow time for street car ride, and return to work in the rest
period allowed between the morning and the evening shift.
There is, besides, the expense of extra carfare to be considered.
In one New York City hotel, according to a woman worker's statement, she reported for work at n A. M. and worked
till 4 P. M. She then left her station for iy2 hours' rest and
returned at 5.30 to work until 9 P. M. She ate her meals
and changed her clothes upon her own time. She complained
that she could not go home in the afternoon because she
lived too far away to change to street clothes twice and allow
for car rides. The hotel had a rest room where she stayed
for the i ^ - h o u r rest period. "Of course," she said, "it is
wasted time." She worked no overtime, but the work was
heavy during the hours in which she worked so that she was
often too tired and nervous to eat her meals.
In another hotel a worker stated that she worked broken
shifts one week in the day time and straight shifts the next
week when she was on night work. One week she worked
from 6 A. M. to 11 A. M., had a rest period from 11 A. M. to
6 P. M., and worked 6 P. M. to 9 P. M. The next week she
worked from 5.30 P. M. until 12 P. M. She ate her meals on
her own time, but changed her clothes on working time.
Overtime varied from 1 to ij4 hours a day.
In the third hotel for which information was secured the

25
waitresses lived in. The work was divided into three shifts;
from 6.30 A. M. to 8.30 A. M., from 10.30 A. M. to 2.30 P. M.,
and from 5.30 P. M. to 7.30 P. M. This makes an 8-hour day
if only the hours actually worked are counted in.
In the kitchen and pantry the hours range from 8 to 9
daily with a six-day week. Here again the broken shifts
and the long and short day were
Hours of pantry maids
found. In the two hotels where
and kitchen help
jobs were obtained in the kitchens
and pantries, there were two
groups of women dishwashers, a day shift and a night shift.
The day shift worked from 7 A. M. to 4 P. M., or an 8j4-hour
day, exclusive of Y^ hour for lunch. The night shift worked
from 4 P. M. to 1 A. M., or an 8 ^ - h o u r day. They worked
six days, or a 51-hour week.
The other workers in the pantry and kitchen of one of
these hotels worked broken shifts. The workers had rotating
shifts with a long day and then a short day. On the day
before the weekly day off, each worker worked a 12 or 13hour day. The irregularity of a pantry worker's hours and
the distribution over a seven-day period, is shown on the
chart on the following page. The length of working hours for
the worker in this instance ranged from 6 to 13 hours daily.
On days on which the long shift was worked, the hours were
distributed over a period of 18 hours. The total weekly hours
of this pantry worker were 63. The two other pantry workers
in this hotel worked a 56-hour week and a 60-hour week,
respectively. Since a girl always worked a long day of 12 to
13 hours before her free day, she was unable to derive full
benefit from it because of fatigue.
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-

C
M

27

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.
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
The effect of broken
worker. Aside from the fact that
and irregular shifts on
two hours in the middle of the
the worker
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.

28

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.
Wages when the
The wages of chambermaids and bathworkers live out
maids 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.

29

The straight cash wages paid to chambermaids and bathmaids in the 46 hotels are as follows:
1
9
11

9
11
2
2

o
1*

paid at least $ 8 but less than $ 9 per week
10
9
t<

II
12

10
11
12

<<

<i

U

a

a

a

a

13
14
15
16
17

13
14
15
16

a

a

a

i

u

<

a

i

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.
In six hotels at which jobs were applied for, lodging was
offered, but no meals. The folWages including lodging lowing cash wages were offered
to chambermaids and bathmaids
but no meals
in addition to lodging:
paid at least $ 8 but less than $ 9 per week
9
10
10
11

No information was obtained
waitresses in this group.

11
12

for pantry

• T h e actual wage paid in this group was $16.00.

workers

or

30

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.
In

8

hotels

which

Wages including three
meals and no lodging
1

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

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

i
5

"
"

"
"

"
"

j**

"

"

"

8
9
I O

"
"

"
"

"
"

9
10

"
"

"

"

«

j

"

No information was obtained
waitresses in this group.
If the $16.50 minimum wage of
is taken, and $6 to cover the cost
the minimum wage for this group
case was this amount received.

for

x

pantry

workers

or

the District of Columbia
of three meals deducted,
would be $10.50. In no

The largest New York City hotels and the largest hotels
^Minimum Wage Board of the District of Columbia. Wages of Women
in Hotels and Restaurants in the District of Columbia. P. 16.
**The actual wage paid in this group was $10.00.

3*
in first class cities require maids to live in and prefer that
some of the pantry workers and
waitresses should do so. In these
Wages including board
hotels chambermaids and bathand lodging
maids living-in have the following wage rates:
i
, 7
17
1
2
1

paid at least $ 4 but less than $ 5 per week
6
5
6
7
8
7
8
9
10
9

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

32

of the hotel is service. It amounts to a direct payment by
the public of a part of the worker's wage.
I t should be remembered that tips are received by chambermaids and waitresses only. There are large numbers of bathmaids, cleaners, pantry and kitchen help who have no access
to tips.
The practice of tipping is defended by both workers and
managers, although it operates to the disadvantage of both.
The management defends tipping on
The disadvantages
the ground that the public wishes to
of tipping
tip. "He feels the servant has given
something extra and unexpected and
he wants to pay something for it—he tips."* This manager
indirectly admits, however, that tipping is an imposition on
the patron when he assures his guests that no discourtesy
will be shown a guest who does not tip. If managers were
candid they might admit that they wish the public to tip
because it enables them to pay their employees a lower wage
rate.
Patrons are frequently annoyed by the persistency of workers in procuring tips. The guest who tips will get service at
the expense of the guest who doesn't—maids are frank to
admit this—and there is consequently dissatisfaction of one
class of guests. A guest in a hotel has come to feel that the
hotel rate is but one item in the expense of staying there and
naturally he resents it.
Between the workers and their superiors disputes arise over
the distribution of tips. Dissatisfaction and lack of cooperation result which obstruct the smooth functioning of departments. Chambermaids designate desk clerks as "sneaking
devils," because they think the desk clerk takes their tips.
They hate the bell-boys because they think they get more
than their share of tips. Waitresses, especially banquet
waitresses, have a constant grudge against head waiters.
They think they hold back a large share of tips from them.
Maids resent it when housekeepers give them transient cor*Statler Service Codes. P. 7.

33
ridors where tips are poor, and waitresses accuse head waiters
of putting them on poor stations.
Tips are a disadvantage to the worker because she can
never know what her weekly earnings are to be and plan her
expenses accordingly. But she defends tipping because she
feels that this is the only part of her earnings over which she
has control. She knows her wage rate will be low, but she
may get big tips through her own efforts. The uncertainty
of the amount of tips has a romantic fascination for the maid
or waitress. She thinks that by an ingratiating manner to
the guest, by staying overtime to be on the spot when a guest
leaves, by her persistence, and by chance of securing a good
floor or station she will get tipped. Moreover, she has heard
many stories of good tips. Maids and waitresses boast of the
good tips they receive and remain silent when they get none.
Each maid hopes that she will be the lucky one. But she
comes to realize reluctantly that she cannot control tips. She
may not get a good floor if she is a chambermaid but one on
which transients stop for one night and are never seen. In
modern hotels the "regulars" stop on the higher floors. She
may not obtain favor with the housekeeper or the desk clerk
or the head waiter. She may be at lunch or supper when a
guest leaves. She may be growing old and the guest will
not be pleased by her manner. The lot of the older chambermaid who is in many respects more efficient than the younger
one, is especially hard. She does not get tips and she ceases
to expect them. This discrimination against the experienced
worker illustrates the unfairness of tips as a part of the workers' wage. Tips depend not so much on service as on a pleasing appearance and manner. Advice to a new maid is to "fix
yourself up" and "don't be bashful. The ones who get tips
are those who stick around and sass 'em back and make them
notice you." There is a question as to how many of the tips
received are legitimate tips. The danger to a young girl, who
ingratiates herself with the guests to get tips, is only too
evident. The girls often said to those who got no tips, "Oh,
you're too straight to make good tips. Make up to them."
The dissatisfaction of the maid who gets low tips grows and
finally she leaves her job. An employment manager of a

34
large group of hotels in New York City said, "From my experience as employment manager, I am thoroughly convinced
that the tipping system is more directly responsible for labor
turnover in hotels than any other one thing. An employee
will leave one hotel to go to another where exactly the same
wages are paid if she thinks the chance for tips is better."
Tipping, as a factor in the workers' earnings, has been generally overestimated. A study, made by the United States
Bureau of Labor Statistics during the
The relation of
war period when tipping was comparatipping to wages
tively high, shows that the average tip
for a chambermaid in Buffalo was 40^
a day and the highest was only 71$. In New York City the
average tip received by the chambermaids was 49^ and the
highest tip 83^.* The Minimum Wage Board of the District
of Columbia in 1919 says of tipping: "Of the 48 maids from
whom data on this point were obtained, 8 stated that they received no tips, 7 stated the amount to be very little and the
average for those giving actual figures was $1.22 per week.
It seems evident that the tips received by maids were not
sufficient to make any appreciable addition to their wages."**
Certainly in New York State, according to the data gathered from this investigation, tipping for chambermaids is
negligible. It is difficult to get an accurate estimate from
maids as to their average weekly tips. They remember a $5
tip they once got but not how much they get each week. In
one of the largest New York hotels, one maid says she gets
$5 once in a while, then nothing for weeks at a time. One
had had $3 in the three months she had worked in the hotel.
Another made 50 cents in 5 days. The investigators, while
working in hotels, received less than $1 a week in New York
City hotels and in the other hotels of New York State only
an occasional small tip of from 15 to 25 cents. It may have
been due in part to the fact that as new maids they worked
^Monthly Labor Review, September 1919. Wages and Hours of Hotel
and Restaurant Employees. P. 193.
**Minimum Wage Board of the District of Columbia. Wages of
Women in Hotels and Restaurants. 1919. P. 5.

35
on corridors for transients and not for permanent guests.
Their experience, however, was borne out by statements of
other maids. There was constant complaint that tips were
low. In up-state cities maids said, "You never expect tips
from travelling men any more. Only when a play actress or
somebody like that comes from New York you get a tip." In
New York City also there was complaint that "houses are no
good for tips now" and "no rich people come any more."
Waitresses, the few whom it was possible to interview, received much larger tips than maids. It is more customary to
tip waitresses and they are always on the spot to receive
their tips. Waitresses interviewed received from $3 to $5 a
day in tips. They form, however, a minority of women hotel
workers and their position in the industry is precarious, due
to the antagonism of the men waiters.
That a hotel can be run without tips has been demonstrated
by a women's hotel in Washington, D. C , in which a minimum
wage of $16.50 is paid. A group of restaurants in New York
City realizing the unfairness of the tipping system, has attempted a standardization of tips. The patron pays a 10%
service charge with his bill, which per cent goes to the waiter
at the end of the week. This seems entirely satisfactory to
the worker in that it makes for a certainty of tips, but the
pernicious principle underlying the tipping system persists.

Living-in
The other uncertain element in a woman hotel worker's
earnings is the board and lodging offered as a part of her
wage. When a girl takes a job she does not see her room
and has no notion of what the food is like. If she is an experienced worker she does not expect much.
All women cannot make use of the board and lodging
offered in a hotel. It depends upon the conditions of their personal life. Married women or
Living-in a disadvantage
women with dependents are
to women with dependents
barred. So, in some hotels,
where the same wage is offered to workers living in or out, married women and women

36
with children are forced to accept the cash wage without the
board and lodging. Often this worked great hardship to the
women whose husbands were out of work. It was difficult,
too, for the woman with dependents for whom she had to
maintain a home. A number of widows with children were
forced to accept the low cash wage. Finding that this wage
would not support them, many of them put their children in
institutions and lived in. They felt, on the whole, that this
was a highly unsatisfactory solution. With night work and
a seven-day week, maids could rarely see their children.
The cost of board and room to employees, furnished as it
is upon a large scale, is without doubt much less than the
cost of the same if purchased retail
Money value placed
by the employee. In order to judge
upon food and lodging
of the value of board and lodging
by the hotels
which is offered by the hotel, it is
necessary to have some standards
by which to measure it. Hotels have made no attempt to put
a money value on lodging and board. The only way an estimate can be made of the cost to hotels is by the difference
in wages paid to employees living in and those living out in
the same establishment. Even this means is scarcely accurate
because, in some cases, the same wage is paid to both and a
varying number of meals is eaten by the employees.
A few instances can be given, however. In three hotels
where one group of employees have meals and lodging and
where the group living out took no meals in the hotel, there
was a difference in the wage between the two groups. The
difference which may be said to be the value placed by the
hotels on food and lodging was, in the three hotels, $2.30,
$3.04 and $3.46, respectively.
In seven hotels where one group lived in and one group
roomed out but ate in, the wage difference illustrates the
value set by the hotel upon lodging. The difference in wages
varied from $1 a week to $2.31 a week.

37
In the hotels of up-state cities Polish maids are beginning
to replace the American workers. One employment manager
said, " W e like these foreigners. They don't
Living on a
expect to spend so much money, and they'll
hotel wage
put up with more." Again and again the complaint was heard that the hotel wages were
insufficient to live on, even
when food and lodging
were included. Many of the workers found it necessary to buy food in addition to that provided by the
hotel in order to keep their health. Those who did not
live in the hotels were unable, because of the irregular
hour schedules, to take advantage of the cheaper rates of
boarding houses for meals. In most cases they had no family
connections on which they could depend. They were forced,
therefore, to buy their meals at restaurant prices or else to cook
them themselves. Workers, whose wage included three meals
but no lodging, were not always able to take advantage of
the meals offered. So it happened that waitresses and pantry
maids, when their day began in the afternoon, often had only
one meal in the hotel. Again, if they had family responsibilities, they could often not reach the hotel in time for breakfast.
If a maid's day ended early she lost time by staying for
supper in the hotel. , The result is that many workers eat the
noon meal only in the hotel and provide the other meals at
their own expense when they are rooming out.
Most of the hotel workers prefer to live out. "You like a
room by yourself which you know is clean. These hotel
rooms have so many girls in them, and they're all kinds." But
those who do live out experience the difficulty of paying rent
out of their small wage. One girl, who worked in a New
York hotel for $35 a month and meals, had to pay $25 a month
for her room. "Of course," she said, "I can't live on that."
A worker in a Rochester hotel, a widow with three children
all living at home, earned $10.50 a week with no board or
lodging. She said her eldest son was a printer who was out
on strike. "He gets $19 a week strike pay," she said, "while
I get $10.50 a week for working 7 days. Of course my pay
doesn't make me independent. It just helps along. It doesn't
go far when you have to buy your own shoes and shoes for a

38
12-year-old boy." One woman, who received $50 a month
and lived out, worked all day in the hotel and then packed
candy every evening from 6 to 10 o'clock to make enough
money to live on. She had a family to support. Another
intelligent American woman, earning $10 a week, was keeping
her sick husband in one room for which she paid $8 a month.
She had one bed and a table. The rest of the furniture was
packing boxes. She had to prepare all the meals in her spare
time.
Aside from food and rent, clothing is the largest item in
the hotel workers' budget. Both a uniform for work and
street clothes are needed. The uniform was furnished by the
hotel in only the largest New York City hotels. When
charged to the worker it cost about $4.00. She must also furnish, if a chambermaid or waitress, a black waist and skirt
for night work. This waist usually costs from $2.00 to $2.50
and the skirt at least $5.00. The waitress needs a number of
clean white shirtwaists. Shoes are an important item to both
chambermaids and waitresses who are on their feet all their
working hours and must be neatly and comfortably shod.
Workers complained that they need shoes every three months
and that they cost at least $6 a pair.
After the necessary uniforms and a meagre supply of street
clothing are paid for, there is little left from the wage for incidentals and to meet emergencies. Doctors and dentists are
rarely consulted except in several large hotels where doctors
and dentists are employed by the hotel and where workers
can have attention at reduced rates. Women workers
neglected their teeth through poverty and ignorance. The
older bathmaids and maids frequently had only a few snags
left. An occulist was an unheard-of expense. Few of the
older workers wore glasses even when they had the greatest
difficulty in seeing. Some used magnifying glasses to read
the newspapers, and others could not read print at all because
of the condition of their eyes. Magazines and newspapers
were a luxury. Workers never bought them and read only
what was given them by guests. Books were never seen.
The workers seemed to have neither the energy nor the money
for any kind of self-improvement. The younger girls could

39
frequently find someone to take them out for amusement,
but for the older workers there was no recreation at all. They
complained that they could save nothing for their old age.
How many guests, who pay from $4.50 to $9 a day for their
rooms, know that less than 6$ of this goes in cash to the chambermaid for her services? In one hotel where these rates are
paid, chambermaids receive $300 a year or, allowing for two
days off per month and a week's vacation, a little less than
90^ for a working day. This is for cleaning fifteen rooms.
And yet we are told it is for service that we pay so dearly in
hotels!

4Q

LIVING-IN CONDITIONS
The living-in conditions described in this report are the
conditions found by the workers who made the investigation.
They lived in ten hotels. These included some of the largest
hotels in New York City where a proportion of the women
workers always live in.
The food for maids and other women workers is served in
"Helps' Hall." When the worker offers to take the new maid
"down" to lunch she means it literally. Usually
Food
it is in the second basement underground.
Through labyrinths, ill-lighted and heated, sometimes dripping from pipes overhead, she finally arrives at
"Helps' Hall." Sometimes she finds it next to a basement
laundry which is always steaming hot. As the worker enters,
she faces a long row of steam tables. She has her meal ticket
punched, grabs a tray, and gets in line. There is no choice
of food. Her tray is filled with soup, meat, potatoes and
pudding and she deposits it on one of the deal tables in the
room and seats herself with the rest on a bench without a
back. If she comes late, there is often a litter of spilled food
and dirty dishes on the table which take away her appetite.
There is a rattle of tin knives and forks. Usually only maids
and other women workers are eating in the dining hall, although in small hotels men and women eat at different tables
in the same room.
In the hotels in which the workers lived in, they found the
dining-room service always hurried. Soup was usually spilled
and too much sugar put in the coffee. In one smaller hotel in
New York City where men and women ate together workers
waited on themselves. All cut their bread from the same loaf,
dished out meat at the steam tables, often with the help of
their fingers, and poured their own milk. A late worker
coming to lunch found messed-over remains of food which
had been fingered by many unwashed hands of porters, laundrymen, maids and cleaners.
The quantity of food served was sufficient. Plates were
well filled, second helpings were often allowed, tea, coffee,

41

milk, bread and butter were always plentiful. Desserts
usually "ran out," but desserts were considered a luxury
anyway. The quality of food was inferior. Poor cuts of
meat and leftovers in the form of stew and hash with cold
bologna for supper was the usual meat diet. Tinned vegetables, carrots, beans and macaroni without cheese were customary. Boiled potatoes were the mainstay. Rice, in different forms, was always served. Rice and bread puddings
were the favorite desserts. Butter was often oleomargarine
and milk was thin and blue. Fresh vegetables, fresh salads
and fruit never appeared even in midsummer. It is true
salads and melons, were sometimes served, but they were
wilted, and workers would not touch them. Ice cream, a very
skimmed-milk ice cream, was served once a week on Sundays.
Stale French pastries and sour chocolate eclairs sometimes
appeared.
The following menus for "Helps' Hall" in a New York hotel
illustrate the unvaried, unappetizing and unhealthful food
offered. The meals were served on the hottest days of the
month of August. Breakfast: Oatmeal, unsalted and with
lumps in it, sugar, tea and milk. Lunch: Macaroni without
cheese flavored with meat grease, boiled potatoes, bread and
corn bread, butter, coffee or tea and unflavored rice pudding.
Supper: Fish (which was very strong and unedible), boiled
potatoes, bread, butter and tea. Following this supper for
lunch the next day there was rice cooked in meat grease with
boiled potatoes and stew added. For supper there was stew
again, corn bread, coffee, tea and bread pudding flavored with
cinnamon.
And so on, every day appeared stew and boiled potatoes
during a week of work in this hotel. The workers all complained of the food as not fit to eat. They said, "They don't
care what they give you in a hotel. Don't eat most of it, it
will kill you. They feed you like dogs here." Many workers
did not come to lunch at all. They made a little tea and a
sandwich in their rooms. Many others on hot days, after
eating such meals, had indigestion and were forced to leave
their work. They went out for meals as often as they could,
especially for supper. One girl said, "I am so siclpof potatoes.

42

I do want some fresh vegetables and a salad. Of course you
can get a real meal sometimes outside, but, Holy God, on our
wages!" Another worker was overheard giving advice to a
girl who was leaving, "Well, kid, I tell you, it's God's truth
this ain't no place for a young American girl like you. When
you're young, you can get out. You get into a club, kid, where
you get the same grub they eat theirselves. Here, the grub
will make you old before your time. Look at me, I'm just
thirty and I look fifty. If you stay here, you just get used to
the food and everything. You see, they're all old ones here.
You get out. Now I just eat a little toast and tea some days.
W h a t else do they give you ? Potatoes! I tell you to get out,
though I hate like hell to see you go."
The food served to pantry workers was much better and
they could eat salads and fruit if they cared to. They ate on
the job, however, and often had no time to eat their lunches.
Waitresses in some hotels ate the same grade of food as maids
and kitchen help, but they "picked up" extra food on the side.
The lodging furnished women in large hotels was confined
to bed space in a dormitory except in a few instances. The
bedrooms varied in size, but were everywhere
Lodging
overcrowded. There were from two to ten girls
in a room in most hotels. Cots were placed side
by side and the only ventilation came from windows at the
far end of the room. The rooms were often overheated and
ill-ventilated. Several rooms opened on air shafts. In one
hotel there were three occupants in a room with one window
opening on a narrow airshaft. The air was "vicious" and it
was so dark that an electric light was needed to see at noon.
In one hotel a worker, when shown to her room, was told,
"This is an awful nice room, not many people in it." It was
a room 10 x 20 feet, with six beds, two dressers, no chairs and
a row of lockers. There were two small windows at one end
of the room. "There are twice as many girls in the room next
door," said the guide. A room in a large metropolitan hotel,
18 feet long, 15 feet wide and 10 feet high, housed eight girls.
They slept in double-decker beds. There were two large
windows and when the weather was hot enough so everyone

43
was willing to have the windows open, the air was reasonably
good. But when it was cold and some one of the eight girls
wanted the windows closed, the air in the morning was frightful. Three dressers stood in a curtained space on one side of
the room under which the clothes of the eight girls hung
together. There was one straight chair apiece. The room
was steam-heated, with an electric light hanging from the
ceiling. When the girls who slept in the lower berths wanted
to read they had to stick their heads out, as the upper berths
took away the light. As the girls living in the room worked
different shifts, there was always some one asleep, which
meant that the rest must keep quiet. A girl coming in at
midnight after a night watch had to undress in the dark. One
of the maids said, "This room is one of the pleasantest in the
house."
In the smaller hotels dormitory rooms were less frequent.
In one hotel two girls slept in double decker beds in an 8 x 10
room. In one hotel only were single rooms found, but this
hotel had just begun to room its maids and had not yet filled
the rooms with two beds apiece.
Beds had adequate linen which was usually clean, though
often ragged. Towels and soap were furnished by the hotel
in every case. In the larger hotels a maid cared for the rooms
and made the beds. In the smaller hotels this was done by
the workers, and bedrooms were very carelessly kept. There
was an adequate number of baths and toilets in the largest,
modern hotels of New York City, although they were often
ill-kept and dirty. In the small hotels in New York City and
in the hotels of the other cities of the State an inadequate
number of baths and toilets were found and the plumbing was
poor. Baths were ill-kept and often the hot and cold water
faucets were out of order. In some hotels maids were expected to use guests' toilets and showers at odd hours.
Laundry facilities were inadequate except in the largest
New York hotels. Maids washed their clothes at night and
hung them in their rooms to dry. The damp and unhealthful
atmosphere in a bedroom in which wet clothes are hanging
can be imagined. In some cases an iron could be secured
from the linen room. In others, maids bought their own irons
which they attached to electric lights in their rooms. In sev-

44
eral hotels maids were required to wash their own uniforms
under these conditions and often they washed clothes for
the guests.
In no hotel in which the investigators worked was there a
room in which women workers could receive guests. For
social life they were forced outside the hotel to the streets. In
only one hotel was there a telephone in the employees' quarters. Three hotels had rest rooms for women workers with
comfortable chairs and tables. Two had victrolas and one had
a piano in its rest room. No books or magazines were ever
found. In the majority of hotels there was not a comfortable
chair which women workers living-in could use while off duty.
They spent their recreation hours talking on trunks in the
halls or lying on the beds in their rooms.

45
RECOMMENDATIONS
On the basis of the facts set forth in this report, the Consumers' League of New York believes that there is need for
a special code for the hotel industry. The nature of the work
in hotels is such that regulations regarding the length of
hours and the distribution of hours in shifts cannot be made
to apply to all occupations alike. Separate arrangements,
therefore, must be made for chambermaids, pantry workers,
waitresses, etc. The Consumers' League recommends that a
more intensive and extensive investigation be made by the
State Industrial Commission to secure additional information
necessary for drafting such a special code.

A Special Code for the Hotel Industry
The recommendations of the Consumers' League as to
points which should be considered in drafting a code for the
hotel industry follow.
It is recommended that legislation be passed to make it
possible to include in the Industrial Code the regulation of
hours of work as well as the actual working conditions and
conditions under which women hotel workers live in a hotel.
Hours
Women workers should have 24 hours of consecutive rest in
every calendar week.
No woman worker should work more than 8 hours in one
day or more than 48 hours in one week.
No woman worker should be allowed to work between the
hours of 12 midnight and 6 A. M.
Because it is a continuous industry, workers may be permitted to work broken shifts. Not more than two shifts
should be worked in one day. For chambermaids and pantry
maids there should be at least four hours between shifts in
order that the time may be utilized by the worker. For waitresses there should be two shifts with at least four hours
between shifts, or three shifts within a spread of thirteen
hours.
Each worker should have a scheduled time for meals. At
least one-half hour should be allowed for each meal.

46

Living-in Conditions
The system of living-in should be abolished.
While the living-in system continues, each worker should
have a single room or, if two employees are in one room,
there should be single beds, not double deckers. Ventilation
should be by window. In the case of airshaft, court of areaway there should be a specified number of feet between the
window and the opposite wall. The rooms of workers should
be located so that they do not get their air from the laundry
or kitchen. Each room should be equipped with a sanitary
metal bed, cl£an and sufficient bedding, a locker, closet or
dresser where clothes may be kept sanitary and safe, and at
least one comfortable chair.
Sanitary conveniences (toilets, showers and tubs) should
be separately enclosed. Those for men and women should
be remote from each other and plainly marked. Sanitary
conveniences should be clean and light, and there should be a
sufficient number to each floor for the number of employees
using them.
There should be hospital accommodations provided in accordance with the size of the establishment. The room should
have beds so that workers who are ill can be segregated from
the other employees.
A sitting room should be provided, quiet, with comfortable
chairs, where visitors are permitted.
The food served to workers should constitute a well-balanced diet, wholesome, varied, appetizing and sufficient in
quantity. It should be served in a well-lighted and aired,
quiet and clean dining room.

A Minimum Wage Law
The Consumers' League recommends that a minimum wage
law be passed in New York State which shall include the
hotels in its application.

Tipping
Tipping should be abolished.

47
SUGGESTIONS TO H O T E L MANAGERS
It is suggested that it be the duty of special employees to
care for the workers' rooms and also to serve the meals, remove the dishes and keep the tables clean in the employees'
dining room or cafeteria.
It is suggested that employees be interviewed and hired by
a person understanding the technique of the selection of
workers and the requirements of the various jobs in the hotel,
with the purpose of securing an efficient force of workers and
reducing the turnover of labor. An experienced person,
preferably a woman, should be responsible for the introduction of the new employee to her job, her training, her transfer
or promotion.
The conditions of living-in, while the system is continued,
should be under the supervision of a competent woman.