The modern hotel industry, claimed by the 35th Convention of the New York Hotel Association to be the fifth largest industry in the United States, is of comparatively recent growth. It is true that from the earliest times there have been inns and small hostels for the accommodation of the wayfarer. But this accommodation was the simple provision of board and lodging. The host and his family ran the house much as the modern boarding and rooming house is run. Until the late nineteenth century thes

The function of the housekeeping department in a hotel is the housing of guests. It has sole charge of the bedroom floors. The function of the women workers in this department is to clean the bedrooms and corridors, to change the linen on the beds, to dust and sweep, supply fresh towels and soap and care for the baths, private and public. The bulk of this work falls in the daylight hours when guests have risen and gone about their business. In the large transient hotels, however, guests are comi

The work of the waitress in a hotel reaches its peak at meal hours and slackens between times. For this reason waitresses work “broken shifts.” The daily and weekly hours of the waitresses interviewed were not as unstandardized or as excessive in length as hours for chambermaids. They worked a six-day week in all cases. But the distribution of hours of work in broken shifts caused great inconvenience to the workers. Those who lived in were apathetic but those who lived out and wished to return h

In the smaller hotels of New York City and the hotels of the smaller cities of the State, a straight cash wage was paid to women workers in all occupations. The wages of chambermaids and bathmaids varied from $8.77 a week to $16 in the 46 hotels where wage rates were obtained. Of these, the one hotel paying $8.77 a week was the largest hotel of a second class city where two large factories employing great numbers of women had closed down. The housekeeper said, “The works have shut down, so you c

Tips, or the giving of gratuities by the patrons of the hotel to workers who serve them, is the most unstandardized part of the earnings of the worker. Because the giving of tips depends not only on the whim of the public but upon the general prosperity of the country and the individual prosperity of the patron, it admits of no standardization. Tipping seems incongruous in that, by its own definition, the function of the hotel is service. It amounts to a direct payment by the public of a part of

The other uncertain element in a woman hotel worker’s earnings is the board and lodging offered as a part of her wage. When a girl takes a job she does not see her room and has no notion of what the food is like. If she is an experienced worker she does not expect much. All women cannot make use of the board and lodging offered in a hotel. It depends upon the conditions of their personal life. Married women or women with dependents are barred. So, in some hotels, where the same wage is offered t

The living-in conditions described in this report are the conditions found by the workers who made the investigation. They lived in ten hotels. These included some of the largest hotels in New York City where a proportion of the women workers always live in. The food for maids and other women workers is served in “Helps’ Hall.” When the worker offers to take the new maid “down” to lunch she means it literally. Usually it is in the second basement underground. Through labyrinths, ill-lighted and

The recommendations of the Consumers’ League as to points which should be considered in drafting a code for the hotel industry follow. It is recommended that legislation be passed to make it possible to include in the Industrial Code the regulation of hours of work as well as the actual working conditions and conditions under which women hotel workers live in a hotel....

Women workers should have 24 hours of consecutive rest in every calendar week. No woman worker should work more than 8 hours in one day or more than 48 hours in one week. No woman worker should be allowed to work between the hours of 12 midnight and 6 A.M. Because it is a continuous industry, workers may be permitted to work broken shifts. Not more than two shifts should be worked in one day. For chambermaids and pantry maids there should be at least four hours between shifts in order that the t

The system of living-in should be abolished. While the living-in system continues, each worker should have a single room or, if two employees are in one room, there should be single beds, not double deckers. Ventilation should be by window. In the case of airshaft, court or area-way there should be a specified number of feet between the window and the opposite wall. The rooms of workers should be located so that they do not get their air from the laundry or kitchen. Each room should be equipped

The Consumers’ League recommends that a minimum wage law be passed in New York State which shall include the hotels in its application....

Tipping should be abolished....

It is suggested that it be the duty of special employees to care for the workers’ rooms and also to serve the meals, remove the dishes and keep the tables clean in the employees’ dining room or cafeteria. It is suggested that employees be interviewed and hired by a person understanding the technique of the selection of workers and the requirements of the various jobs in the hotel, with the purpose of securing an efficient force of workers and reducing the turnover of labor. An experienced person