The First Hired Girl

Kolohe in reply to Jaybird says:

I’m going in with the operating assumption (which seems supported by how people are dressed) that nearly all “Days of Real Sport” are nostalgia pieces set in Briggs’ own youth, i.e. the mid 1880s.

Our friend Fred in St Louis shows that the average laborer’s wage in the 1880s was 12 to 13 cents (nominal) per hour or about a dollar a day. (though this was the era were 10 to 12 hours a day were common, so that’s probably where we see other sources provides figures close to a buck fifty a day).

So either they are way way underpaying her, even for that time, or this is (and it seems most likely to me) some part time work, a couple hours a day around mealtimes to cook prep, clean up afterwards, and help out with the kids as needed. And in that case, I could maybe see how the neighbors may perceive her as being overpaid. (i.e. putting in 8-10 hours a week gives a nominal wage of at least 20 cents a hour, which was above average, esp for a woman, of that era)

The question of ‘are you going to sleep here’ also maybe leads me to this conclusion, but I’m probably overinterpreting it. The perhaps is old enough to remember that the family actually had live-in help in the past, and a live-in maid may be a different thing than ‘a hired girl’?

Otoh, it does seem likely ‘the first hired girl’ contains what is says on the tin – this is a moderately successful financially secure middle class family that has enough money to afford some domestic help, and decided to ‘splurge’ on the expense now that there’s a fourth kid.Report