Volume 8 — NEGROES IN DOMESTIC SERVICE IN THE UNITED STATES[A] (continued 2)
Reading edition
During the twenty years preceding the World War, very little advance was made in the wages of domestic workers, but during the war their wages increased about 150 per cent. Since the war, according to Dr. King, while the decline in public domestic service wages has not been as great as that in many other fields of employment, the average earnings an hour in money wages of public domestic service workers are still below those in a majority of the industries. Although there has been an increase in wages of domestic service workers, their working hours are longer than those of any other group of laborers.
In some cities living conditions on employers' premises for domestic workers are good, in others there is need of great improvement along this line. However, with the increasing disinclination on the part of the domestic workers to "sleep in" and the slowly growing public interest in standardizing house work, this problem will in time be solved. There has been much improvement in the working conditions of domestic employees, but there is still need of much more.
The indications are that little attention is paid to the health and the social life of domestic workers. This neglect, especially of the health of domestic workers, is no doubt fraught with dangerous consequences, not only for themselves but for the homes and welfare of the nation.
That the social life of the older Negro domestic workers is supplied at least to some extent in their churches is proved by the fact that about seven out of every eleven Negroes in the United States are enrolled as members of churches. Their interest in secret orders is also shown by the number of members and the money spent in such organizations. As social attractions for the younger domestic employees, there are such places as dance halls, moving pictures, pool and billiard rooms, and the like. The social stigma attached to domestic service bars young domestic workers from many of the entertainments of real value and benefit.
Domestic workers in ten or more cities of the United States have attempted to better their conditions by means of organized effort. The organization in California is rendering real service to its members through its home. With the present large percentage of domestic workers who are rooming in the various cities, and the conditions obtaining in many rooming houses connected with employment agencies, there is urgent need of establishing clubs or homes for domestic workers.
Many private employment agencies in their relation to the homes of the United States act as brokers. The fees charged both the employer and the employee are generally exorbitant. The service rendered by them is on the whole poor. The harm inflicted upon society by many of them is irreparable. Public control of employment agencies has great possibilities for social betterment.
Elizabeth Ross Haynes