The Household Employment Subcommittee of the National Industrial Committee of the YWCA (The Subcommittee) was in existence from 1929-1940. The Subcommittee, like the NCHE, created contracts specifying minimum standards in order to mediate the employer-employee relationship. They envisioned harmony between workers and employers by “educating employers about how management responsibilities would balance training programs for workers and make the home a model workplace” (Palmer, 116).

Each state’s committee operated differently, offering model contracts based on state minimum wages, and different types of classes for domestic workers seeking work. They also did a lot of work collecting data to gauge what the average workday and salaries were. The contracts that the Subcommittee put forth were met with a lot of push back from housewives who did not want interference from a third party in their home, similar to the experience of the NCHE.

This organization is extremely similar to the NCHE, with goals of using contracts to mediate the employee-employer relationship. The Subcommittee fell short because in an effort to find domestic workers jobs they tried to make them appealing to employers instead of advocating for domestic worker’s rights. The documents from the state Subcommittees can be found in boxes 493, 494 and 495 in the SSC.

Source:

Palmer, Phyllis. Domesticity and Dirt: Housewives and Domestic Servants in the United States, 1920-1945. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989.