On Jeeves and a valet's wages
Apr. 24th, 2011 08:03 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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indeedsir_backupWe've had some discussions of this in the comm before. I was fortunate enough to pick up a copy of Wooster Proposes, Jeeves Disposes this week and the author handles this information in a footnote. I'm posting it here for folks to consider if they ever need the information in their stories.
p. 365-366, f 9.:
"Data on servants' wages during the 1920s are difficult to find in secondary sources. A sampling of London Times want ads for valets in early 1929, however, shows their annual wages falling in this £65-to-£80 range (not counting room and board). For example, a "general manservant" asking £65 described himself wanting a position in London doing the "entire duties of one gentleman"; he could cook, drive a car, and speak French (The Times [4 Mar. 1929]: 3). Butlers and butler-valets received more, in the £80-to-£100 range. An agency supplying footmen, butlers, and valets listed the wage range as £35 to £100 (The Times [19 Mar. 1929]: 4). Even assuming Bertie had to pay Jeeves double the highest valet's rate (i.e. £200) to keep him from his friends' clutches, he would still only make around £4 a week. (In Sayers' Whose Body? [1923], Wimsey reveals that he pays Bunter £200 a year, implying that this is unusually high because Bunter assists him in his hobby of detection.) Thus £95 received in a period of two weeks would be a very substantial sum, with even the £5 to £20 Jeeves customarily gets being far from negligible."
ETA: Somebody in comments noted that tipping of staff (in clothing, for example) was common. The author quotes Bertie in Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves as saying: "My heart melted. I ceased to think of self. It had just occurred to me that in the circumstances, I would be unable to conclude my visit by tipping Butterfield. The hat would fill that gap."
p. 365-366, f 9.:
"Data on servants' wages during the 1920s are difficult to find in secondary sources. A sampling of London Times want ads for valets in early 1929, however, shows their annual wages falling in this £65-to-£80 range (not counting room and board). For example, a "general manservant" asking £65 described himself wanting a position in London doing the "entire duties of one gentleman"; he could cook, drive a car, and speak French (The Times [4 Mar. 1929]: 3). Butlers and butler-valets received more, in the £80-to-£100 range. An agency supplying footmen, butlers, and valets listed the wage range as £35 to £100 (The Times [19 Mar. 1929]: 4). Even assuming Bertie had to pay Jeeves double the highest valet's rate (i.e. £200) to keep him from his friends' clutches, he would still only make around £4 a week. (In Sayers' Whose Body? [1923], Wimsey reveals that he pays Bunter £200 a year, implying that this is unusually high because Bunter assists him in his hobby of detection.) Thus £95 received in a period of two weeks would be a very substantial sum, with even the £5 to £20 Jeeves customarily gets being far from negligible."
ETA: Somebody in comments noted that tipping of staff (in clothing, for example) was common. The author quotes Bertie in Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves as saying: "My heart melted. I ceased to think of self. It had just occurred to me that in the circumstances, I would be unable to conclude my visit by tipping Butterfield. The hat would fill that gap."
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