Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor

BEHIND THE SCENES IN A RESTAURANT—A STUDY OF WOMEN RESTAURANT EMPLOYEESSource: Monthly Review of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Vol. 4, No. 2 (FEBRUARY,1917), pp. 258-261Published by: Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of LaborStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41823298 .

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258 MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

a movement had been accelerated by the coming into effect of the minimum wage, but holds that it was bound to take place sooner or later, regardless of the wage decree. There was no evidence to show that extras were being substituted for regular full-time workers.

BEHIND THE SCENES IN A RESTAURANT - A STUDY OF WOMEN RESTAURANT EMPLOYEES.

As far back as 1883 a bill was introduced into the New York Legis- lature forbidding the employment of women in manufacturing estab- lishments more than 10 hours a day. That particular bill was de- feated, but the fight was kept up until now it is illegal in New York to employ women in factories and mercantile establishments more than 54 hours or 6 days a week, or between 10 o'clock at night and 6 in the morning. Moreover, there are numerous restrictions as to the kind of work they may do, and under what conditions and in what sur- roundings they may do it. But while, during these 33 years, some portion of the safeguards they need have beeç secured for the workers in factories and stores, women employed by the thousand in other lines of work have been left unprotected. The Consumers' League of New York City has recently undertaken a study of conditions in one of these other branches - restaurant work - in which between 15,000 and 20,000 women are employed in New York State, and has pub- lished the results in a very readable pamphlet.1 The purpose of the study is thus expressed :

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 investigation covered a group of 1,017 women and girls em- ployed in restaurants in New York and six other large cities of the State. Waitresses made up over half of the group (53.5 per cent), cooks formed about one-fifth, and kitchen helpers a little over one- fourth of the total. The majority were foreign born, the American born forming a little less than one-third. Austro-Hungarians made up practically two-fifths of the group, no other nationality furnish- ing as much as one-tenth. One-fourth were under 21 years old, and 44 per cent were 21 but under 30, the proportions in these age groups differing according to the occupation, 15 per cent of the waitresses, 21 per cent of the cooks, and 48 per cent of the helpers being under 1 Behind the Scenes in a Restaurant. The Consumers' League of New York City, 1916, 47 pp.

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MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS. 259

21. 1 Almost one-third (31.8 per cent) were married, 53 per cent were single, and the remainder were widowed or separated from their husbands.

The actual conditions of labor, as represented by the experiences of this group, leave much to be desired, the two most objectionable features being the long hours and the heavy, nerve-racking character of the work. The hours vary widely. The custom of having a cer- tain number of girls come on duty for only the principal meal of the day gives a group whose hours are very short, but the hours for the full-time workers run up sometimes to almost incredible lengths. A little over two-fifths (42 per cent) worked less than 55 hours a week; one-fifth worked less than 35 hours weekly. At the other end, one- fifth worked over 75 hours, and 5 per cent over 85 hours weekly. Eighteen were found who worked over 95 and six who worked over 105 hours weekly. Such hours mean a seven-day week as well as fear- fully long daily hours. Unfortunately, the continuous week is not confined to the 18 having such excessive hours. "A 12-hour day and a seven-day week is the lot of one-fifth of these workers." Also, the long hours are not restricted to the older workers ; of those working over 75 hours a week nearly two-fifths (37 per cent) were 21 but under 30, and one-fourth (26.6 per cent) were under 21. The prob- able effect of such hours on the health of the workers, especially when these are young girls under 21, needs no emphasizing.

The character of the work increases the strain of these hours. The strain, the heat, and the hard, continuous wTork involved in cooking are well known. The kitchen helper must be prepared to do any kind of hard and heavy work, wTith no opportunities for rest, and the waitresses must carry heavy trays of food and be almost continuously on their feet, incidentally walking miles each day in their journeyings to and from the kitchen. All the workers need much endurance, and all must work at high tension.

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 7,000 articles in an hour and a half.

The strain of such conditions is intensified by the fact that there is no provision for any rest period during the day. The law requires 1 The age level of these restaurant workers seems considerably higher than that pre-

vailing in the factory industries of New York City. The New York State Factory Investi- gating Commission published in 1915 the results of a study of workers in the shirt - making industry, in confectionery, and in paper-box making. The number of female fac- tory workers studied in New York City was, shirt makers, 4,776; paper-box makers, 5,522 ; confectionery workers, 4,797. The proportions of these three groups under 21 were, respectively, 68.5 per cent, 60.6 per cent, and 60.1 per cent. That is, in all three of these groups the proportion under 21 was nearly the same as the proportion of restaurant workers under 30. (See Fourth Report of Commission, Vol. Ill, pp. 805, 829, and 856.)

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260 MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

that girls in stores and factories must have at least one-half hour off for luncheon, but there is no such requirement for restaurant work- ers. " They must eat when they can snatch a minute from work," and the investigators noted many complaints of indigestion and loss of appetite as a result of haste and irregularity in taking meals.

Where working conditions are bad it is naturally assumed that wages should be high to strike some sort of balance, but wages in the restaurants are about on the usual level of those in unskilled industries for women. One-fourth of the group were paid less than $5 a week, while over two-fifths received $5 but less than $7 a week. Nine dollars has been fixed as the minimum on which a girl can live properly in New York, but 89 per cent of this group received less than this sum. Even when due allowance is made for tips and for meals given in addition to the money wage, 31 per cent received less than $9. Tips, it must be remembered, are received only by the waitresses. For these they make a very important addition to the nominal wage, bringing up the proportion who received $9 or over a week from 3.4 per cent to 50.5 per cent, but the cooks and kitchen girls have no share in this alleviation of conditions. The cooks received higher wages than the other groups, over two-fifths of their number reaching or passing the $9 which is considered essential, but the kitchen girls showed a distressingly low level ; one-seventh earned less than $5, and three-fifths earned $5 but under $7 a week. Only 2 per cent earned pver $9.

Nightwork existed, but was not common for women. The fact that only 4 per cent of the women interviewed worked at night is held to prove that such work is unnecessary. The majority of em- ployers secure men for nightwork, and the remainder could easily do so if the law forbade the employment of women during the hours when they may not work at factory occupations. Naturally, all the objectionable features of the work are intensified when the employee is a nightworker.

It is to be regretted that more information about the married women in the work (31.8 per cent) is not given. It is said that " many of them are one-meal girls - that is, they are employed only for the rush hour at noon." It would be interesting to know exactly how many of them were one-meal girls, and how many of the remainder were working 12 hours or even more a day, or were among the limited number found working at night. It is highly undesirable that any woman should work such hours, but if after having done so she must then contrive to get in some kind of housekeeping for children who must be either neglected or cared for by some make-shift arrangement while she is away, the strain on the woman herself and also the social significance of the situation are seriously increased. Likewise fuller information as to how many are working a 7-day week would be

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MONTHLY BEVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS. 261

useful. Are all whose hours exceed 75 working 7 days? Or do some of these put in for 6 days a week the 15-hour day, which we are told is not uncommon ? And how are wages related to hours? How many of the 89 per cent of waitresses whose wages fall below $9 a week were one-meal girls, putting in only a few hours a day, and working only to " earn a little extra money while their husbands are at work, either as 4 pin money ' for themselves or to help toward the support of the children " ?

The report gives a graphic and striking picture of the hardships endured by restaurant workers. These hardships do not seem in- herent in the work; they have been found in almost every form- of factory work, and no restaurant keeper couid protest the impossi- bility of modifying them more strenuously than did the manufactur- ing interests when first it was proposed to bring the factories under control. To meet the situation the league recommends amendments to the mercantile law, bringing restaurant workers under its general provisions. This would do away with the long hours, with night- work, with the 7-day week, and would provide a regular time off each day for meals.

RECENT REPORTS RELATING TO WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION AND ACCIDENT INSURANCE.

MASSACHUSETTS.1

The Industrial Accident Board of Massachusetts, in its report to the legislature of 1917, strongly urges that the compensation act be made compulsory. The present act is elective, and although employ- ers not electing lose certain defenses in case of damage suits, a num- ber of employers have remained outside the act, and their employees are not entitled to compensation payments in case of injury.- Re- ports of the inability of widows and other dependents to obtain ade- quate settlement with noninsured employers, as well as appeals from injured employees whose employers have neglected to come within the provisions of the statute, show the necessity of the com- pulsory law.

The report says : " If the idea upon which the law of modern workmen's compensation for injuries in the course of their work rests is just, there is no good reason why a small percentage of the employ- ers of the State should be permitted to

* avoid the duty to their

employees which the great majority elect to assume." The board

urges that if a constitutional amendment is necessary to accomplish the change immediate steps should be taken to that end.

1 Information from Boston Evening Transcript, Jan. 4, 1017 p. 3. 1 8

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