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)
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.[2] 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.[2]
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.
Footnote 2:
Minimum Wage Board of the District of Columbia. Wages of Women in
Hotels and Restaurants. 1919. P. 10.
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.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Labor Recruiting]
During the war the hotels of New York City found that advertisements,
private fee-charging employment agencies and bulletins posted at the
employees’ entrance, were bringing in inadequate returns. 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 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, “We don’t need to do that now; we have a long line
at the door every day for every job.”
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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