Victorian Domestic Servant Hierarchy and Wage Scale A chart showing the hierarchy of British domestic servants in a large manor in 1890, the wages servants would make back then and corrected for inflation to today's values.
During
the 1990s and early 2000s Hollywood and Britain released several
successful movies about life in the 1800s. Public interest in these
films prompted BBC to produce made for TV reality shows showing what
life was like during this era, notably The 1900 House and The
Manor House. These shows got me wondering about the hierarchy of
British domestic servants at the turn of the last century and how
much they earned. This webpage is a condensation of what I learned
from several written and Internet sources (notably: Daily Life in
Victorian England by Christopher Hibbert, The Victorian
Household by Marion Lochead and the website Victorian Servants
at www.ourwardfamily.com/victorian_servants.htm as well as material
gleaned from a dozen other lesser sites.
The chart that follows shows the hierarchy of the servants of a major manor house in 1890. Such an estate would consist of a family headed by a gentleman of titled nobility, such as a duke, or an extremely wealthy business man, such as the president of Lloyds of London or the Bank of England. Men of this level would have incomes of at least 10,000 pounds sterling a year, equivalent today after adjusting for the 1890 exchange rate of $4.87 US dollars per pound and a century of inflation to $1,200,000 per year. If this amount seems too small to support at large household of servants (around 1890 the Duke of Westminster had a staff of 50 indoor and another 50 outdoor servants) it has to be acknowledged that the disparity between the rich and the poor was much greater then than now. The average servant earned a mere 25 pounds a year or $2,700 in today's economy. Cheap labor is what made large staffs possible.
It was impossible to categorize every type of servant at the turn of the century. Many great houses had specialty niches into which they placed a servant that might not fit in any other house. While the basic structure of the servant hierarchy was similar from house to house, the complexity of the great houses was such that a one-size-fits-all approach was not possible. The following chart focuses only on the principle servants.
Two salaries are listed for each position. The first is what the position paid in 1890 pounds, the second is what that salary would equal today after adjusting for the 1890 exchange rate and inflation to 2005. These values are based on the averages cited in several different references and should only be considered as approximations. Individual salaries varied significantly depending on the servant's appearance, attitude, capabilities and the size of the house in which they worked.
Domestic
Servant Hierarchy
Land
Steward
Responsible
for managing the farms, collecting rents
and
undertaking all those activities associated with
making
the estate profitable. This would be a highly-
educated
gentleman who was regarded not as a
servant
but a professional employee with a status
higher
than the family lawyer. In addition to an
annual
salary of 100-300 pounds ($11,000-
$33,000)
he would have a private house on
the
estate.
House
Steward
Responsible
for all purchasing, hiring, firing and paying
the
servant staff. He would not be considered a servant
but
a professional man like a lawyer. Fifty to 100 pounds
($5,500-$11,000)
per year.
Upper
Staff
Butler
The
highest ranking official servant. Responsible for running
the
house. Forty to 60 pounds ($4,300-$6,400) per year.
He
also received considerable "gratuity" money from venders
selling
goods to maintain the house. In smaller estates the
butler
assumed the house steward's responsibilities.
Housekeeper
Responsible
for the female staff and maintaining the house's furnishings.
Her
salary was usually 5 to 10 pounds less than the butler's
($3,700-$5,400)
per year.
Cook
or Chef
In
charge of the kitchen staff and responsible for preparing
the
family's meals. (An under cook would prepare meals for him
and
the staff.) Because food quality was an important method
for
impressing guests, chefs often earned more than butlers even
though
they ranked below them. A cook for a modest house might only
make
30 pounds ($3,200) a year while a famous chef for a royal family
might
earn as much as 300 ($32,000.)
Lady's
Maid and Valet
Their
main job was to be a private servant for the lady or master
of
the house: assisting them with dressing, caring for their cloths,
being a
general
companion and even performing secretarial duties. They were hired
by
the Lady and Master of the house rather than by the butler, housekeeper
or
house steward. Typical salaries were 20-30 pounds ($2,100-3,200) per year.
Lower
Staff
First
Footman
Next
in line to replace the butler. His main job was to be tall, handsome
and
represent the estate's grandeur. He accompanied the lady of the house
on
shopping expeditions, served the family meals and assisted the butler
in
his duties. Oddly, his responsibility did not include heavy work such
as
carrying coal or water. These were left the the female staff. His salary
was
around 30 pounds ($3,200) a year. Many footman's salaries were
based
one how tall they were rather than how well they did their work.
The
taller and more impressive they were the more they received. Their
income
was supplemented by 5-15 pounds ($500-$1,500) a year in tips
and
other gifts from lady of the house.
Second Footman
Similar
to the first footman but in more of an apprenticeship status.
Twenty-five
pound ($2,700) per year. Premium salaries were paid
to
a pair of first and second footman whose size and appearance
made
them look like twins. The idea was that they were most
impressive
if, like book ends, they matched.
Head
Nurse
In
charge of the nursing staff in houses with
several
nurses. Many of these nurses, charged with
watching
over young children, were themselves
only
12-14 years old. Head nurses earned 25 pounds
($2,700)
per year.
Footman
Additional
male staff for opening doors, waiting at table,
assisting
gentleman or accompanying ladies as needed.
Twenty
pounds ($2,100) per year.
Chamber
Maids
Responsible
for cleaning bedrooms. Twenty pounds ($2,100) per year.
I
imagine they were slightly higher than parlour maids because chamber
maids
were in more intimate contact with the family, or at least the
remnants
of their presence.
Parlour
Maids
Responsible
for cleaning and maintaining the sitting rooms, drawing rooms,
etc.
of the house. Twenty pounds ($2,100) per year.
House
Maid
General
purpose worker. Sixteen pounds ($1,700) a year
Between
Maid
Worked
in either the house or the kitchen as needed.
Fifteen
pounds ($1,600) a year.
Nurse
Responsible
for raising the babies and young children of the house.
Ten
to 15 pounds ($1,100-$1,600) per year depending on
age
and ability.
Under
Cook
Apprentice
to the chef. Prepares meals for the staff. Worked for low
wages
to work his way up to a full chef's job. Fifteen pounds
($1,600)
per year.
Kitchen
Maid
Assists
in kitchen work. Fifteen pounds ($1,600) a year.
Scullery
Maid
Dish
washer. Thirteen pounds ($1,300) per year
Laundry
Maid
Washing
and ironing. Thirteen pounds ($1,300) a year.
Page
or Tea Boy
Apprentice
footman. Typically 10 to 16 years old. Eight to 16 pounds
($860-$1,700)
per year depending on age, height, appearance and abilities.
Head
Groom or Stable Master
Responsible
for running the stables. Positionally he might rank
as
upper staff but because he wasn't part of the inside staff
he
didn't have their privileges. However, as master of his own
staff
he undoubtedly occupied a similar status. Thirty to 50
pounds
($3,100- $5,300) a year.
Groom
Cared
for horses: grooming, saddling, etc. fifteen pounds
($1,600)
per year.
Stable
Boy
Cleaned
stables and etc. Six to 12 pounds ($640-$1,300)
per
year depending on age and ability. Many times they
started
when they were only 10.
Head
Gardener
Like
the head groom the head gardener was management and
therefor
upper staff, yet his position outside the house prohibited
him
from occupying a position in the house's upper
servant's.
Also like the stable master his position of authority
had
its compensations. Because a grand estate's grounds were
as
important to impressing guests as the chef's skill, the head
gardener
could earn a very high wage, as much as 120 pounds
($12,800)
per year.
Game
Keeper
Responsible
for maintaining the bird population of the estate
so
that the Master and guests would have game birds, such
as
pheasant, to hunt. Thirty to 50 pounds ($3,100-
$5,400)
per year.
Grounds
Keepers
The
general laborers under the head gardener. They'd do everything
from
planting trees to cutting grass. Eight to 16 pounds ($850-
$1,700)
per year depending on age and ability.
Governess
I'm
listing governesses as a separate category because they
existed
in a kind of social limbo. Typically they were unmarried
daughters
of gentlemen who for one reason or another had to
go
into service to support themselves. Because they officially
belonged
to the genteel class it would be unspeakable for them
to
accept service as a maid. As a governess they were able
to
make use of their education and in theory retain a little of
their
dignity. In reality their lives were miserable. They were looked
down
on by the house's family as being from a failed family. Equally, the
staff
looked down on them because they represented hypocrisy: they
worked
for wages like any servant yet were supposed to be genteel.
Their
job was to care for the family's teenage girls. (Teenage males
were
sent off to boarding school.) Their salaries were 25 pounds
($2,700)
per year. I found no references that clearly stated whether
they
were considered upper or lower staff. Movies that show governesses
walking
through the front door and assuming a status high above that of
house
servants are not consistent with the lives described in my references.
Gate
Keeper
This
is another servant hard to categorize. His job was to guard the main
entrance to the estate and often lived in a small house attached to
the gate. Yet he would be classed as unskilled labor and as such
would occupy a low position on the servant's hierarchy and receive a
commensurately low salary, perhaps as little as 10 pounds ($1,100)
per year.
One might wonder how people could live on such small incomes. Even when the value of room, board and clothes were added in these salaries still represent a poverty existence by today's standards. Part of the reason they were able to survive is because their lives were so simple (no car to pay off, no insurance, no phone bills, no electric bills, no water, waste and property tax bills, etc.) that they didn't require as much. Additionally, with the typical work schedule being 16-hours a day, 7-days a week they didn't have much time to spend their income on entertainment... of which there wasn't much.
Such conditions seem horrendous to us today, but it needs to be remembered that the work ethic was completely different 100 years ago. Today we work with the mind set that we do so mainly to get ahead in the world and pay for possessions and activities that bring us pleasure or satisfaction. Back then people worked to survive. Without any form of social security if you didn't earn a salary you starved to death, or froze to death in winter, or died of disease. There were no societal safety nets to catch you if you lost your job and nor unions to fund your retirement.
While the life of a servant was unbelievably hard, many nonetheless considered themselves lucky to have food to eat and a roof over their heads regardless of the pay. They had a perspective born from a desperate need for survival and this went a long way toward sustaining them. Additionally, many began service at very young ages and were conditioned to accept it as a natural lifestyle.
Victorian Servants at www.ourwardfamily.com/victorian_servants.htm is an outstanding webpage for detailed information about the duties and life styles of most of the servants mentioned on this page.
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