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.