Hiding the Poor

In the US we've gotten quite good at keeping the poor out of sight.  Also, disguised.  They are not merely segregated into parts of town we tend not to visit.  These days they wear the Wal-Mart frock, serve us french fries, and clean our hotel rooms.

And we are pretty out of touch about how poor our working poor are.  I recently was talking to some family members about tipping hotel housekeepers.  I had read a book that shocked me by saying that a reasonable tip per night was $2-$3.  All these years, I had been overtipping with $5 tips, assuming that the woman who cleans my tub and toilet deserves at least that.

My son-in-law contested that they actually make a good salary.  I did quite the double-take.  He's a fairly recent college grad making a nice living in computers.  I told him that I was pretty sure these women made salaries not much above minimum wage.  Since this was a friendly, happily inebriated last-day-of-my-visit, we soon went on to other subjects.

Since I've been home, though, I've been mulling this over.  Today, I found some statistics.

Indeed, with the exception of a few states like New York, the wages hover around $20,000.  And I would guess that the big city in those states tip the scale a bit.

So this career path, which involves doing the kind of job that I don't even like to do in my own home, and for hotel guests that are probably often not as neat and considerate as I am, also likely involves not being able to pay one's bills, and not being able to afford extras, like buying a pizza to take home to the kids at the end of a long shift.  I would imagine the benefits do not include sick pay and paid vacation either.

And invisible?  How often do we actually know who is doing this scut work for us?  Unlike a waiter, you can skimp on the housekeeper's tip and never have to look her in the eye.

My point being that this is shameful.  And that maybe the worst thing about this situation is that we are able to not know that it exists.  And this is how we successfully hide our poor.