Domestic service

by Lucy Maynard Salmon

This is also made evident by the diagram. Forty-nine of the fifty largest cities in the United States are found in the first thirty-four states in the list; only one of the fifty is found in the last fifteen states. The fact is apparently most clearly shown in the case of the District of Columbia, which has an almost exclusively urban population and ranks first with reference to the number of servants employed. The condition here, however, is due not so much to its urban character as to the employment of colored help and the fact that the city contains an abnormally large number of temporary residents requiring a disproportionate amount of service. The truth of the proposition is better indicated by the examples of New York, Massachusetts, and New Jersey, which stand nearly at the head of the list and contain seventeen of the fifty largest cities.

(3) The aggregate wealth of a state has little appreciable effect on the relative number of domestic servants employed.

This is evident from a study of the relative true and assessed valuation of real and personal property in the different states.[203] In more than one half the states it has no apparent connection whatever with the relative number of servants.

(4) The per capita wealth of a state has, with the exception of the Southern states as a class, a somewhat important bearing on the relative number of servants employed.

This will be seen from an examination of the per capita assessed valuations of real and personal property in the various states.[204] The rank of each state in the class of per capita wealth and in the relative number of domestic servants employed, with the exception named, does not vary materially. The variation in the Southern states is due to the presence of negro employees. The extremely low wages paid by employers enables them to command the services of a larger number of persons for the same expenditure of money than is possible at the North.

These facts may be considered as indicative in a general way of the truth of the current opinion that an increase in income generally shows itself first in the employment of additional service. They prove nothing absolutely on this point, however, as they are too general in character.

(5) Domestic employees are found in the largest numbers, relatively and absolutely, in the large cities. The fifty largest cities in the United States contain 18.04 per cent of the total population of the country. They have, however, 32.32 per cent of the total number of domestic servants. To put the same fact in another way, domestic servants constitute 2.32 per cent of the total population, but 4.07 per cent of the population of the fifty largest cities. The force of gravity exerted, therefore, by the large cities seems to act with nearly twice the power on the class of domestic employees that it does on the population as a whole.

The conclusion seems to follow that in general employers in large cities have less difficulty in securing servants than have persons living elsewhere, but that they are practically restricted in their choice to those of foreign birth. The conclusion does not follow that these employers have less difficulty than have others in dealing with the question of domestic service, since the facts given concern only the number of servants, not the quality of service.

(6) The proportion of persons engaged in domestic service varies with geographical location and prevailing industry.

This fact is indicated by the chart, which shows that in Southern cities, where the colored population is large, and in New York and Boston, which are ports of entry and therefore able to secure a large number of foreign born servants, the proportion of servants to the total population is large. In cities where the leading occupation is manufacturing, as Lowell, Paterson, and Fall River, the proportion of servants is small. In cities where the industrial conditions are similar the proportions are similar.