eginning at less than $4.00 and running
by $1.00 groups up to $9.00 and over. There follows (p. 80) a table
covering 682 males in twenty-four occupations and 2,138 females in
twenty-five occupations from 1906 to 1909. It will be noted that in
some cases two occupations are given under one heading such as
elevator and switchboard, or cook and laundress. In these cases, the
individual is paid the same for the two branches of work; so far as
the wage is concerned it is one occupation. It is significant that out
of a total of 682 males, 513, or 75.2 per cent, received wages under
$6.00 per week and that 141, or 20.7 per cent, received between $6.00
and $8.99 per week, while only 4.1 per cent received $9.00 or more per
week. With the females, the showing is even more unfavorable. Out of a
total of 2,138 females, 1,971, or 92.2 per cent, received less than
$6.00 per week, and of these 1,137, or 53.2 per cent, received less
than $5.00 per week. Of those receiving $6.00 or more per week, only 8
out of 2,138, or .04 per cent, received as much as $9.00 or more per
week.

Of course, many of these wage-earners are furnished their meals in
addition to wages; some have meals and room. In some cases question
may arise about the effect of lodgings furnished by the employer upon
the wages paid his domestic help, but both from the testimony of the
employment agent and from statements made in the records, it does not
appear that wages are different whether the servants "sleep in" or
"sleep out." There are no data to show whether or not consideration of
car-fare had any effect on the wages.

An inspection of the list of occupations for which these wages are
given and the fact that they were employed in private families (see
Table XVIII below) show that comparatively few of these wage-earners
had opportunity to receive any considerable money from tips. This is
especially true of the females. We may take, therefore, the figures of
the table as probably giving an accurate statement of the wages
received in domestic service in New York City during the four years,
1906 to 1909.

When one considers the probable dependents on many of these
wage-earners, the high rents and high cost of food, he is not
surprised to find that about half of these families take lodgers (see
p. 64), and that a majority of the women are bread-winners (see p.
73). He sees the poorly-paid domestic service on the one side and on
the other the cost of living as high wal