These reasons and others demand a more detailed examination. It is true in domestic service, as in other occupations, that many drift into it because it is apparently the only course open to them, but there are certain advantages and disadvantages which a person who is free to choose always weighs before deciding for or against the occupation. The most obvious advantage is that of high remuneration,[244] including not only wages and expenses, but as has been seen, the factors of steady employment, certainty of position, and the fact that no capital is required at any stage of the work or in preparation for it. A second advantage is that the occupation is conducive to good health, including as it does regularity and variety of work, and involving no personal inconvenience or discomfort.[245] In one third of the families considered men servants are employed in some capacity, and this means that much of the hard work is done by them. A third advantage is the fact that it gives at least the externals of a home. This consideration weighs especially with the foreign born and those who have no homes of their own.[246] How varied and numerous these home privileges are is best illustrated by the replies given by employers to the question, “Do you grant any special privileges?” Thirty answered “No,” and one hundred and seventy-five gave no answer. Eight hundred enumerated special privileges, and these formed sixty-eight different classes. The most important of these are single rooms, medical care and attendance when sick, use of daily papers, books, and magazines, evening instruction, sitting-room for visitors, no restrictions as to visitors, use of bath-room and sewing-machine, use of horse and carriage when distant from church, seat at table except when guests are present, seat in church, and concert and theatre tickets (in the families of newspaper reporters). Many other privileges are mentioned,—these are the most frequently granted. Seventy per cent of the employers state that they give a single room, but about one half of this number employ only one domestic. In many cases a large room is given for every two domestics, with separate furniture for each. One hundred and forty-six specify the use of the dining-room, and ninety-four families give the use of a special sitting-room. All of these privileges show that even if the employee is not a member of the family, her life is as much a part of it, with the single exception of a seat at the family table, as is that of the average boarder. This enumeration of privileges does not include two other classes which have in a sense ceased to be regarded as such, but rather as prerogatives of the position. These are freedom from work at specified times each week and a stated vacation during the year with or without wages.