Is service work today worse than being a household servant?

[n2doc]

by David Cay Johnston

At least one class of American workers is having a much harder time today than a decade ago, than during the Great Depression and than a century ago: servants.

The reason for this, surprisingly enough, is outsourcing. Let me explain.

Prosperous American families have adopted the same approach to wages for servants as big successful companies, hiring freelance outside contractors for all sorts of functions — from child care and handyman chores to gardening and cleaning work — to reduce costs.

Instead of live-in servants, who were common in prosperous U.S. households before World War II, better-off families now outsource the family cook, maid and nanny. It is part of a problem in developed countries around the globe that is getting more attention worldwide than in the U.S.

We are falling backward in America, back to the Gilded Age conditions of a century and more ago when a few fortunate souls grew fabulously rich while a quarter of families had to take in boarders to make ends meet. Only back then, elites gave their servants a better deal.

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http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2013/12/service-industryworkerslaborinequality.html

[darkangel218]

1. I used to work as a petsitter for a rich, afluential family

The daughter treated me like shit. She wouldnt even greet me. I had a To do list and schedule. No insurance or paid time off. Just cash, minimum wage.

It was horrible.

[kestrel91316]

4. "Afluential" - is that sort of like "refudiate"?

[darkangel218]

5. Whatever, kestrel1316

Why aren't you on ignore?

Yikes.

[kestrel91316]

6. You're free to put me on ignore, to answer your own question.

[canoeist52]

2. Yep, historically, at least servants could count on food and housing being provided.

[jsr]

3. Good point.

[SharonAnn]

7. And perhaps, being treated with some degree of respect.