The Long-Day Workers.
Who are the workers that bear the brunt of the long hours in restaurants? They are for the most part the younger women and girls—those who are most likely to be injured by overstrain. They are the very ones whom it is to society’s interest to protect most carefully since by their strength is measured the strength of the next generation. Less than thirty per cent. of all workers exceeding fifty-four hours a week are over thirty years of age. ([See Diagram 7.])
Foreign-born women also make up the greater part of this group. ([See Diagram 8.]) They do not know how to protect themselves from employers’ unreasonable demands, they must have work and they are not trained for anything except unskilled labor. They will work any number of hours exacted by the employer whatever the cost, until exhaustion renders them unfit for labor of any kind.