MINIMUM WAGE BILL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 259, 19 August 1950, Page 3

MINIMUM WAGE BILL

SECOND READING DEBATE PAY FOR WOMEN (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Aug. 18. The Opposition would not oppose the Bill, although it had certain criticisms to make about it, said Mr A. McLagan (Riccarton) in the House of Representatives this afternoon, after the Minister of Labour (Mr W. Sullivan) mov:ed the second reading of the Minimum Wage Aniendent Bill. The measure gives effect to the recent interim general wage order of the Court of Arbitration. The minimum wage for men is given in the Bill as £G 11s 8d a week and for women £4 8s a week, these rates to operate from September .1, 1950. Mr McLagan said the Bill conferred too little too late. The Government’s policy of “making the £ go” had necessitated an increase in wages in sfiite of previous statements by its Ministers that they objected to the vicious spiral of wages chasing costs. He criticised the increase in the cost of living since the Government took office and said that the recent in : creases in the cost of various commodities was greater than at any other similar period. Mr W. A. Sheat (Government, Patea) said that the cost of commodities to people over recent months, even weeks, was the result of unnecessary stoppages. He suggested that the member for Riccarton would do a service to the country if, as a former industrial labour leader, he used his influence to prevent such stoppages. Miss M. B. Howard (Opposition, Sydenham) criticised the disparity in the recent wage between male and female rates. The time had come for women who did equal work to organise and get equal pay and equal conditions with men. “Try giving me 4s 9d when other members in the House get 75,” she said. “There would be a sit-down strike of three.” There were many exceptional women in industry who were entitled to equal pay, Miss Howard said. Indeed it cost as much for food to a women alive as it did for a man. The price of meat and fish was such that it almost put that food into the luxury' class, and those on lower incomes were finding they could not afford to buy such foodstuffs. Mr C. G. E. Harker (Government, Hawke’s Bay) said that if ever a Bill to increase the wages of those not subject to awards had been damned by faint praise by an Opposition, this was it. The Bill should have received generous support from all parts of the House. a

The Minister for the Welfare of Women and Children (Mrs G. H. Ross) said she was entirely at one with the member for Sydenham so far as equal pay for women for equal work was concerned. She would not be so foolish as to say that the Government had made the £ go further, but ultimately when the ship of State was put on an even keel and the mess inherited from the Labour Government was rightd, the £ would go further. “I know that the housewife is not getting the deal that she should,” said Mrs Ross, “but that is the result of Labour policy.” It was nonsense to say that married women had to go out and work because the National Government had come into power, Mrs Ross said. “Women got a taste of having their own income during the war years,” she said, “and some are reluctant to give up their jobs.”