Housing Development and Union Wages: Waitresses and Saleswomen Living in San Francisco’s Tenderloin, 1910-1941

Abstract

Tenderloin housing built after the 1906 earthquake and fire is the focus of a qualitative study linking the achievement of union wages by waitresses and saleswomen to their ability to afford comfortable housing in the years between 1910 and 1941. Paul Groth’s research on downtown districts supplying workforce housing between 1880 and 1930 provides the foundation. Information from the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union and the Department Store Employees Union Local 1100 archives at San Francisco State University’s Labor Archives and Research Center provided information about wages and work conditions. A 1941 Waitresses Local 48 roster of members’ names and addresses shows that after achieving union wages, women who lived independently of larger family households could afford well-built and comfortable mid-priced hotel rooms or efficiency apartments.