There are many women who entertain extensively, but they never recompense a household employee for any extra work that may be demanded from her on that account.  They consider themselves fully justified in exacting extra long hours of work because of the high wages they pay, especially as it frequently happens that while the work is more on some days, it is less on others, and they think in consequence that their employees have no cause for complaint.

It is a mistake, however, to think that an employee who is obliged to be on duty and has little or nothing to do on one day, is really compensated for the extra hours of work she has been compelled to give on other days.  A saleswoman who on certain days has no customers or only a few, is just as much “on duty” as if her work filled all her time, and it is the same with a domestic employee.  Indeed it is generally conceded to be more irksome to remain idle at one’s post than to be actively engaged in work.

But on the other hand, there are many housewives who feel that they ought to give their employees more pay for extra work especially when it is connected with the entertaining of friends, and the following ways of rewarding them have been tried with more or less success.

One plan that gained favor with several families was to give ten cents to the cook and ten cents to the waitress every time a guest was invited to a meal:  ten cents for each guest.  At the end of a month the ten cent pieces had amounted to quite a sum of money.

Another plan that was tried in a small family was to give fifty cents to the cook and fifty cents to each of the two waitresses for every dinner party that took place, regardless of the number of guests.  Still another plan was to give at the end of the month, a two dollar, five dollar, or ten dollar bill to an employee who had given many extra hours of satisfactory work to her employer.

All these plans are good in a certain sense, inasmuch as they show that women are awakening to the realization that some compensation is due to household employees for the extra long hours of work frequently unavoidable in family life.  But unfortunately these plans lack stability, for they depend altogether upon the generosity and kindness of different employers, instead of upon a just and firmly established business principle.

And now comes the question:  What method of payment for overtime will produce a permanently satisfactory result?

The only one that appears just and is applicable to all cases is to pay each employee one and a half times as much per hour for extra work as for regular work.  In this way each employee is paid for overtime in just proportion to the value of her regular services.  For instance, when a household employee receives $20, $30, or $40 per month, that is to say $5, $7.50, or $10 per week, for working eight hours a day and six days a week, she is receiving approximately 10, 15, or 20 cents per hour for her regular work.  By giving her one and one half times as much for extra work, she ought to receive 15, 22-1/2, or 30 cents per hour for every hour she works for her employer after the completion of her regular eight hours’ work.