[356] Under this head come cast-off clothing, skins of animals, bones, tallow, drippings, etc. A. Weber, Les Usages locaux, p. 48.
[357] “Beer (or beer money) is allowed at the rate of about one pint a day for women-servants.”—Booth, VIII., 220 (1896).
Miss Collet considers it established that in England the custom of paying beer money is dying out, many employers not only give no beer money but also give no beer. Report, p. 29 (1899).
In Italy women-servants are allowed one-half pint of wine per day, and men-servants one pint. The wine is given out each day, or the money equivalent at the end of the month.
[358] Les Usages locaux, p. 52.
[359] The laws of insurance against accident, sickness, invalidism, and old age compel the employer to pay one-half the insurance,—about three dollars per year. It is said, however, that as a rule the employer pays the entire amount. It is true this amount is small in families employing but one servant and paying low wages, but where several servants are kept and high wages given the total amount is considerable. On the other hand, the burden is often relatively, though not absolutely, heavier in the family with one servant on low wages, since this means a small income. The amount of insurance varies with the wages, but the wages received by most domestics place them in Class II. The government rates board and lodging received by servants at 350M. per annum, and this with the cash wages received puts the insurance at about three dollars annually, an amount slightly in excess of that paid by the employees in Class I. See Unfallversicherungsgesetz, Krankenversicherungsgesetz, and Das Reichsgesetz über die Invaliditäts- und Altersversicherung. Each of the states of the Empire has its own Gesindeordnung and the conditions of insurance are often stated in these.
[360] In France scarcely forty years ago it was considered impossible to ascertain the wages paid domestic servants. Statistique de la France. Prix et salaires à diverses époques. Paris, 1863. Cited by M. Gustave Bienaymé in Journal de la Société de Statistique de Paris, November, 1899.
[361] M. Bienaymé has attempted, with the aid of information gained through employment bureaus, personal recollections, household expense books, and similar means, to give the wages paid in France since 1815. The results of his investigations seem to show that wages in nearly every branch of domestic service have steadily increased since that time, until now the wages of an ordinary cook are 50 francs per month and a chambermaid the same, while a general servant receives 40 francs per month, the wages of all these classes of house servants having doubled the past sixty years. At the same time the cost of maintenance has also increased. He gives a table showing the increase, or in some cases the decrease, in wages in every branch of domestic service during this period. Journal de la Société de Statistique de Paris, November, 1899.
Practically the same estimates are given by M. Georges Salomon in “La Domesticité,” La Nouvelle Revue, February 1, 1886. He cites a similar opinion from M. Jules Simon.
Mr. Booth shows a gradual increase in the wages of servants as they grow older or are advanced to better positions, but this does not necessarily show a general increase from year to year. VIII., pt. II., passim.