EN
Servants represented a stable social and professional structure of the urban and rural society. The article is focused at the servant institution in a context of factors that caused the persistence of this social phenomenon in Slovakia until the beginning of the second half of the 20th century. It points also at the creation and development of servants as a social reality in the condition of an obvious status and wealth difference among the society. According to the examples of the current times, the author points at the actuality that labour for hire in social history presents an important part of the economic strategy in society.