New-York tribune., 1919-08-07
Fifty Places Open to Each
Applicant, Agencies Say;
Wages Asked Are Driving
Thousands to Apartments
Cooks Get $50 a Month
Ban on immigration Blamed
and Not Brides; Maids Get
More Than Office Workers

here at the present time is unparal-
leled. Employment agencies agree
that they were never in such a guam
dary; that the average house worker
could be engaged at least fifty times
day; that she can virtually fix her
own wages, whether she is green" or
experienced and that the trained
worker is at a premium.
The walls of the agencies are f1anked
With rows of empty chairs. Three
ears ago there were never enough
chairs to go around. On the other hand.
telephones tinkle all day long with in
sistent demands from distracted
women for help-help of any kind and
at any price.
At every agency visited by Tribune
reporter the reasons given for the
hortage were identica:
/. Hundreds of domestic workers
re returning to Europe to visit their
antilles, especially where brothers and
athers have been killed in the war.
,. Ninetynine per cent of the do
lestlc workers previously came from
.urope. Now Immigration is at a
,andstill.
3. August is the worst month in the
ear on account of the great demand
or girls to go out of town.
Excels Professional Woman
Things have reached the stage where
he unskilled domestic worker is to-
lay worth more than the trained bust
ness or professional woman of avrage
earning capacity. There are cooks who
urn up their noses if they are offered
anything less than $3.50 a month. And
IN nine cases out of ten. they get it,.
out it is the little maid of all work.
who is more precious than rubies and
who demands any price, with $50 a
month as the minimum.
Following is a conservative estimate
Of the wages to-day being given to
help of all kinds-green, indifferent or
inexperienced:
Per month
Cooks .............. $50 to $3.50
altresseS ............' ~ 10 ~
ChambermaidS ............. AS to 60
Children's nurses .......... so to 100
Dlshwashers ............. 40 to 90
Seam stresses .............. 4O to oO
General houseworkers. $50 upward
Kitchenmaids, who used to be happy
on $18 a month, and sometimes $14,
will now be satisfied with nothing less
than $50. Cooks, who not so long ago
got $50, now demand $50 at least.
Cupid is in no wise responsible for
war work had anything to do with it.
The consensus of opinion among those
in touch with the situation is that
few domestic workers went into war
work; that there has been no unusual
marrying off as a result of war cond
tions, and that few have turned from
housework to other industry.
Mostly Foreign Born
There are practically no American
born girls in domes site service, and mo ost
Of the maids in New York have come
originally from Ireland or Scandinavia.
Until imn grafton gets into full swing
again no Improvement is expected IN
the situation.
Forty-third Street, has been placing
maids for over twenty years and she
declares that crisis has been reached.
maids were never treated with as
much consideration as they are now"
she says. "Things have reached such
pitch that women are doing more
housework on their own account than
they have done for years In many in
stances they are forced into apart
ments. The women with children have
the worst of it, because no class of
worker is more difficult to obtain than
the nursemaid or governess."
At Lambott & Groves agency, 645
Sixth Avenue, the demand is chiefly for
hotel help, and here, too, the situation
is acute. More workers are available for
hotel and institutional work than for
private homes, but higher salaries are
asked.
New York City is not alone in its
shortage of women workers. Condi-
tions are "uncannily the same all over
the state, especially where domestic
workers are concerned" according to
DR.. David S. Flynn, director of the en-
ployment bureau Of the New York State
Industrial Commission.