=================+=======+=========+=========+========+========+======= | |Per cent |Per cent | | | |Average|receiving|receiving| | | OCCUPATION | weekly|more than|the same |Highest |Lowest |Total | wages| the |or less | wages | wages |number | |average |than the |received|received| | | |average | | | -----------------+-------+---------+---------+--------+--------+------- General servants | $3.16 | 40.5 | 59.5 | $5.00 | $1.50 | 914 Second girls | 3.34 | 62.2 | 37.8 | 4.50 | 1.50 | 475 Cooks | 4.45 | 50.0 | 50.0 | 10.50 | 1.00 | 574 Chambermaids | 3.86 | 57.4 | 42.6 | 5.00 | 3.00 | 82 Waitresses | 3.76 | 48.4 | 51.6 | 5.00 | 2.50 | 50 Parlor maids | 3.94 | 80.4 | 19.6 | 5.00 | 3.50 | 57 Nursery maids | 3.26 | 51.3 | 48.7 | 7.00 | 1.00 | 233 Laundresses | 4.44 | 44.4 | 55.6 | 6.00 | 2.00 | 53 -----------------+-------+---------+---------+--------+--------+------- Total | | | | | | 2,438 =================+=======+=========+=========+========+========+======= It is seen from Table XII that the average weekly wages in domestic service are $3.23—a fair average in this case, since forty-eight per cent receive more than the average and fifty-two per cent the same or less than the average. The average domestic employee, therefore, is able to earn in money during the year $167.96—a fair estimate, since in seventy-five cases out of every hundred the vacation granted women employees during the year is given without loss of wages.[210] This forms, however, but a part of the annual earnings. To this sum must be added board and lodging, fuel and light. For the equivalent in quality and quantity to that furnished by the employer the employee would in general be obliged to pay for board, lodging, and other incidental expenses at a reasonable estimate five dollars per week, or $250 annually, deducting board for two weeks’ vacation. The total annual earnings of a domestic employee, therefore, amount to nearly $420. To this the negative facts must be added that there is no expense for laundry work, and that the work involves few personal expenses in the way of clothing, and that these necessary expenses are often partially met through gifts from the employer. Again, the position entails no expenditures for car fares in going to and from work, or other demands such as are made in a business way by other occupations, and it involves no outlay for appliances for work, as a sewing-machine, type-writer, text-books, etc. Moreover, no investment of capital is necessary in learning the principles of the work, since employers have thus far been