Behind the Scenes in a HotelConsumers' League of New York City
History
Behind the Scenes in a Hotel
Consumers' League of New York City
Hotels -- Employees; Women -- Employment -- New York (State)
The dissatisfaction of the maid who gets low tips grows and finally she
leaves her job. An employment manager of a 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.”
* * * * *
[Sidenote: The relation of tipping to wages]
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 war period when tipping was comparatively 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¢.[10] 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.”[11]
Footnote 10:
Monthly Labor Review, September 1919. Wages and Hours of Hotel and
Restaurant Employees. P. 193.
Footnote 11:
Minimum Wage Board of the District of Columbia. Wages of Women in
Hotels and Restaurants. 1919. P. 5.
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 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.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account