TABLE XV
Classified Annual Salaries of Women Teachers

A comparison may be made between these wages and the annual salaries received in sixteen representative cities by the women teachers in the public schools. Tables XV and XVI show the annual classified and average salaries received.[211]

TABLE XVI
Average Annual Salaries of Women Teachers

The concentration of salaries is seen to be on those between $400 and $500, the average salary being $545. This sum represents the full amount of wages received. To ascertain the amount it is possible to save annually there must be deducted at least $260 for board and lodging, and $25 for laundry expenses, leaving a cash balance of $260. Out of this sum, however, must come other necessary expenses, as the outfit for work,—books, stationery, etc.,—travelling expenses, car fares, society fees, etc., and a large item for clothing. There should also be deducted the interest on the capital invested in securing the education demanded in preparation for the work. If all of these items are considered, and the greater social demands entailed by the position, it seems possible for the average domestic employee to save at least as much money as the average teacher in the city schools. This comparison is probably relatively higher in favor of the teacher than it should be, since in the average wages for domestic employees are included the wages received in agricultural districts, where wages are lower than in cities. It is also a comparison between skilled workers on the one hand, and on the other hand an occupation in some of the subdivisions of which the laborers are unskilled.

It has, unfortunately, not been possible to compare the wages received in the same city by teachers and domestic employees. A comparison, however, can be made between the wages received in Boston for domestic service and by the teachers in the public schools in the neighboring city of Cambridge.

The average wages received by a cook in a private family in Boston are, as has been seen by Table XIV, $4.45. This judgment is based on five hundred and seventy-four returns, and is an exact average, since fifty per cent receive more than that amount, and fifty per cent the same or less than that. She therefore earns annually $231.40 plus $275 for board, lodging, fuel, light, and laundry expenses, or $506.40.

Fifty-six per cent of the teachers in the city schools in Cambridge earn annually $620, or, deducting $285 for board, etc., for fifty-two weeks, $335 in money. This is $103 more than is received by the Boston cook, but out of this must come numerous expenses entailed by the position, from which the domestic employee is exempt. The cash annual savings in the two cases cannot vary materially.

It will also be seen by reference to Tables XV and XVI that the Boston cook earns absolutely more than does the average city teacher in Albany, Atlanta, Baltimore, New Orleans, Paterson, Rochester, and Syracuse.

A second comparison is suggested by the investigations conducted by the Department of Labor. Through these it was found that the annual cash earnings of the working-women in twenty-two typical cities are $272.45.[212] This average takes into consideration time lost—a factor which does not enter into domestic employments except in a casual way. The annual earnings, therefore, of the class of women represented by the Report are much less than those of the domestic employee. The same point is also illustrated by a comparison of the amounts saved in the two occupations. In eleven cities investigated by the Department of Labor the average amount saved was less than $50; in nine cities it was $50, but under $100, while in only two cities was it more than $100, the highest average amount being $111.[213] As has been suggested, the highest of these averages is small in comparison with the amount it is possible to save in domestic service.

No question in regard to earnings saved was asked on the schedule sent to employees, but many statements on this point were voluntarily made by employees.[214] The question as to comparative amounts saved has also been asked the cashiers of banks in small cities and towns where factories are found and the personnel of depositors is known by the officials of the banks. No records are of course kept, but the opinion has been several times expressed that the factory employees do not save as much, as a class, as do domestic employees. In one place, where about two thousand factory employees are found, it was stated that no woman employee had a sum to her credit as large as had been deposited by a domestic.

A corollary follows from this proposition. High wages alone are not sufficient to counterbalance the inducements offered in other occupations where wages are relatively or absolutely lower but whose special advantages are deemed more desirable.

(7) The wages paid in domestic service are on the average high, but the occupation offers few opportunities for advancement in this direction.

An examination of Table XI shows but one instance, with the exception of nurses, where the weekly cash wages reach $10.00 per week, and only nine others where they rise above $7.00. In the two occupations the wages in which have been compared with those in domestic service, while the general average wages are low, it is possible to reach through promotion a comparatively high point. The fact that the wage plane is a high one is one inducement for women of average ability to enter the occupation. On the other hand, the fact that the wage limit, high as it is, is soon reached must act as a barrier in the case of others.

(8) The amount of time unemployed is less in domestic service than in nearly every other occupation.

The element of time unemployed is an important factor in determining annual earnings. While in nearly every occupation there is a limit to the demand, in domestic service there is no limit and hence few persons are necessarily without employment. The most important illustration of this point is derived from the report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor on the unemployed in that state in 1885.[215] Of the total number of women in the state engaged in remunerative occupations at the time, thirty per cent were unemployed. These were distributed as regards occupations as follows:

But if the number of unemployed is compared with the total number employed in each industry, a still lower percentage of unemployed is found in domestic service. A comparison with other wage earners will make clear this point. The percentage of the unemployed in the leading industries in which women are engaged was as follows:

The demand for domestic servants varies in the different states, but the condition of the unemployed in this occupation in Massachusetts may perhaps be considered fairly typical of that in other localities.

(9) High wages are maintained without the aid of strikes or combinations on the part of the employees.

In but five states are strikes reported among domestic employees;[216] they number but twenty-two and involve less than seven hundred persons, all of them being connected with hotels or restaurants, and nine tenths of them men. Only two instances of permanent organization among this class have come to notice, and neither of these has had as its object the increase of wages. The strike in domestic service assumes the form of a “notice,” is individual in character, and is able to accomplish its object without the organized effort considered necessary in other occupations where the supply of laborers is greater than the demand.

This group of nine propositions concerning wages it is believed will suggest three conclusions: the conformity of wages in domestic service to certain general economic laws, the fact that the wage factor alone does not determine the number of persons in the occupation, and the existence of a few conditions which affect, perhaps unconsciously, the willingness of the women to engage in this work.

The three groups of propositions stated it is believed will suggest the conclusions that the general economic condition of the country has an appreciable influence on the condition of domestic service, both as regards the character and number of persons engaged and the compensation given for service required. It must follow therefore that many questions must arise connected with the employment, which the individual employer cannot settle from an exclusively personal point of view.