Evening star., 1951-01-28
Readers
Clearing House
Conducted by BETSY cAsWELL
TAX PROBLEM.
DOMESTIC HELP.

From Mrs. r. A. w., Chepy Chase.)
For Mrs. B. B.: I shall be glad
to give my personal Interpretation
of the new social security discus
sion. I would suggest first that
each individual secures all the
Government printed matter cover
ing the subject. 1t is free and
from the tone of Mrs. B. BIS letter,
I don't believe she has read it.
For the average domestic day
worker. receiving IS and carefare,
the social security amount would
be about Is cents a day. The
employer would pay half and the
employe half. 712 cents apiece.
Surely If you can afford a days
help you can afford 71a cents
more.
am paying the whole Is cents
as are most of the other ladies I
have talked with. It is the average
day worker that really needs the
benefits from this social security
and think it is a wonderful thing
for their future. After all some
body has to pay our husbands
social security which amounts to
considerably more.
If you don't care to be bothered
with the small amount of book
keeping involved simply give it to
the maid and let her handle it
from there. Give her a few hours
off one day and let her go to the
social security Office and get her
card and all the pertinent infor-
nation and be sure she under
stands all about it. After this
one time, you won't be bothered
about it except to keep a record
of your own contributions. If I
am not taking too much space, I
would like to tell exactly how we
have handled the situation.
My maid worked for several
ladies to make a complete week.
We all love her and are interested
in her future. She has been with
all of US for many. many years.
All : Of the ladies volunteered to
do the desk work for the group.
We choose the woman she has
been with the longest, II years.
Each day after work we give the
maid a card with our name and
address and the day worked on it,
and paste IS cents onto it.
She then keeps it until she goes
to Mrs. Longest's house, then she
turns it over to her. Mrs. Longest
is going to keep all this money
collected from each of the en-
ployers and make the report and
turn in the money in the proper
time. You keep a duplicate of
this information, of course.
Now Mrs. B. B. why are you
SO unhappy about your domestic
help? You mention poorly done
work. wastefulness, missing items.
When I hear these complaints
blame the employer. Do you know
why I don't have this? When I
hired my present help years ago,
and when I now have occasion to
get extra help for occasions, /
sit myself down with the appli-
cant, and boy do we talk. Yes,
they come with references show
ing they have done domestic work
for umpteen years. But that
doesn't mean they are good, not
good enough for me.
I tell them how I want every
thing done. even tell them how
to dust. Do you think anybody
can dust? Well. they can't. My
maid tells me that for several
ladies she works with, she dusts
three different ways to suit them
individually. She wakes a different,
way to suit one. She had to re-
member to use the back door for
some and the front door for some.
She fixes her own lunch for some
and for some she doesn't.
You have to tell them every
thing to do from the minute they
enter the house until they leave
and show them exactly the way
you want it done, no matter if
they have worked Is years at
cleaning. Because. your way, the
way you want it done. is not like
anybody else's under the sun.
That is the only way you can be
satisfied.
You will have to stand over
them every minute for the first
month. Then. from then on, they
can pretty we'll go alone. But you
can't expect them to come into
"a house and do things without
being told your own way. It is