For anyone working in service, negotiating a pay raise was an unpleasant experience.
Resistant employers claimed an opaque assortment of other expenses, arguing that their live-in helpers should feel fortunate to be spared the additional costs of outside living.
(This was a conversation that was usually over before it began.)
Add to that the fact that there was not much opportunity for growth unless you left and took up a position elsewhere, where you’d very likely start at the bottom all over again.
For career servants hoping to secure a promotion, the preferred maneuver was to lie about your age.
I was eighteen working as twenty, confessed one.
Often, taller servants (especially male servants) were paid more than shorter ones. Good-looking workers (footmen, mostly) were paid better than their less-attractive counterparts, too.
One employer who privileged height in a maid took it upon herself to offer unsolicited advice.
You will look taller when you have a longer skirt, she advised, and your hair done up in a bun.