Friday Tunes: She Works Hard for the Money

This week’s song featuring labour themes is from the dying days of disco: Donna Summer’s 1983 “She Works Hard for the Money”. The heroine of the song is Onette (a bathroom attendant Summer startled from a nap in a restaurant) who worked two jobs and was constantly tired.

In the video we see women working demanding, low-wage jobs as well as putting in the second shift (cooking, cleaning, and kids), doing what is necessary to get by and putting their own dreams (not sure what street dancing is a metaphor for) on hold.

Lyrically, disco tends towards the repetitive (although I was surprised how well these lyrics worked in place of Summers’ chorus: “Society does not consist of individuals but expresses the sum of interrelations, the relations within which these individuals stand”).

But given what is here, there are hints of class envy (“Some people seem to have everything”) and exploitation (“For little money just tips for pay”). The song has also lent its title to numerous research projects about gender and wages, such as this Australian example.

She works hard for the money.
So hard for it, honey.
She works hard for the money.
So you better treat her right.

She works hard for the money.
So hard for it, honey.
She works hard for the money.
So you better treat her right.

Onetta there in the corner stands
And she wonders where she is.
And the rain still hurts,
Some people seem to have everything.

Nine a.m. on the hour hand
And she's waiting for the bell.
And she's looking real pretty.
She's waiting for her clientele.

She works hard for the money.
So hard for it, honey.
She works hard for the money.
So you better treat her right.

She works hard for the money.
So hard for it, honey.
She works hard for the money.
So you better treat her right.

Twenty-eight years have come and gone.

And she's seen a lot of tears
Of the ones who come in.
They really seem to need her there.

It's a sacrifice working day to day.
For little money just tips for pay.
But it's worth it all just to hear them say that they care.

She works hard for the money.
So hard for it, honey.
She works hard for the money.
So you better treat her right.

Already knows she's seen her bad times.
Already knows these are the good times.
She'll never sell out, she never will, not for a dollar bill.
She works hard

She works hard for the money.
So hard for it, honey.
She works hard for the money.
So you better treat her right.

(repeat x 4)

-- Bob Barnetson