It is upon the kitchen and pantry hands who make up twenty-eight per cent. of all the workers that the burden of low wages falls most heavily. Waitresses have the opportunity to make tips, cooks receive comparatively fair wages because their work requires a certain amount of skill, but the other women cannot make tips and their unskilled labor is very poorly paid. One-third are receiving less than $6.00 a week, and three-fourths less than $7.00. (See Diagram 9.) [Illustration: All workers |UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU 43% |XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 50% |OOO 7% Waitresses |UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU 58% |XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 38% |O 2% Cooks |UUUUU 9% |XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 59% |OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 32% Helpers |UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU 33% |XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 65% |O 2% U under $6 X $6 and under $10 O $10 and over DIAGRAM 9.—Weekly Wages of Women Employed in Restaurants.] The income of a restaurant worker is not clear gain. Certain expenses are involved in the work which she must meet herself. In restaurants where a special dress is required the waitress must provide her own uniforms, and she must also either wash them herself, or pay for having them laundered. Two clean uniforms a week is the usual requirement and in some cases three. The report of the United States Labor Department estimates that it costs a girl about $0.63 a week for the laundering of her aprons alone.[9] It costs $0.25 to have a uniform laundered, which means $1.13 must be deducted from the $3.50 a week usually paid to waitresses in tea-rooms, where special dresses are always required. In one New York tea-room the girls must have two sets of uniforms, a white dress with white shoes, and a blue dress with black shoes. Each uniform costs $2.50. Fines also eat into the restaurant worker’s earnings. Girls are commonly fined for lateness, one particular restaurant exacting $0.25 if a girl is ten minutes late. Her pay is always cut for breakage, and in some places a certain amount is deducted weekly whether she breaks any dishes or not. Also, mistakes in adding up checks, either over or under the correct amount, and mistakes in orders, must be paid for by the waitress. “Those are the things that make the girls mad,” said one. In one New York tea-room this summer, a customer was served with hot coffee, when she had asked for iced tea, the waitress misunderstanding the order. The mistake was corrected and the iced tea substituted. When the waitress brought the customer her check, however, both tea and coffee were charged, and the girl laid down twenty cents upon the table. “You know, we have to pay for our mistakes,” she said.