COST OF LIVING.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 116, 18 May 1922, Page 7

COST OF LIVING.

X.ABOI7IfS VIEW. MR. McCOMBS PITTS CASE. A lengthy statement ha 3 been prepared by Mr. 3. MeCombs, M.P.. traversing the position of Labour in its relation to the cost of living and instituting comparisons between present wages and earlier standards. The position of the carpenter and the plumber Mr. MeCombs sets cut in the appended table: — Wages Wapes Prices with percent percent bonus, increase, increase. . 1P14.. 1/e I 1917.. 1/8 11 2« March. iftlO 1/W 23 <6 March. 1020 2/3 50 K\ September, 1920.. 2/3? 54 78 I Mnrch, 1922 2'2J 47 67 j The above table, he asserts, in j a (tiriking manner how during the last height Tears, mostly years of prosperity,| , thfi Arbitration Court ha? forced the , I standard of living of the skilled worker ; ] down and down until it is now 20 per !cent below the 1914 level. With a 47 j! per cent incrcaw in wages and a 67 per cent increase in the cost of living it is easy to ace that if wages were to fall in , proportion to prices, then when we pot I back to 1914 figures, if we ever did. wages α-ould be nominally as well as f actually 20 per cent below 1914 rates. , Real wages for skilled workers arc today 20 per cent below 1014 rates. To take tiie i-omparison further back | j the wages paid to carpenter? in 1.597 , -wer<- 1/3 per hour, and plumbers were] receiving 1/3 per hour in 1000. Thcj ! cost of living in 1000 was 18 per cent, , cheaper than in 1914. Hence the equivas lent of 1/3J in 1914 would o'il r have . *h» n nmor n( 11 in 1900.

he purchasirijr power of 1.1 in '"'"'•;(■■, "arponters and phimbcra were receiving m 1/3 in 1000. and hener. were better off M lien to the extent of 2<l per hour, than her arp to-day. In order merely to p, •ejain the relative wage position o, |H' 1914. roeastired in ptirrhafiinß power, workers would to-day have toi M ■eceivp 2/6 per hour, and at the price,.",, prak thri- should have r«en awarded M •onsiderablv more. 5:5 SEMISKTT.LKD. HTie waees paid in vrhat is known as |o' the best eemi-skilled cla*e arc as follows: j Wattes Waees Pri-es ji With Per Cent Per Cent y Bonus. Increase. Increase. n [ lfll« 144 f March, lflin.. in 24 «« P March. 1f>20... 2 1 "1 •« M 5->pt.. 1512-V... 2/11 •■■« Ts M March. 1922... 2OJ 4S 6. Wj Tlie -waaies paid in this clßss formed; thr basis of ralrnlaticn for all bonuses given tinder the I!US legislation. c Tlie following table covers most of the jf workers in the unskilled labour class. B ' some of whom have considerable broken 1 time:— j, Wazes Wasw Prices With Per Cent Per Cert Bnnns. Increase. Increase. I!>H 1 - \ March. l!»in.. 1'« 2H 1« i March. 1020... Ino r.7 m J Sept.. 1020. ... 1 10} tr.'* t* Manh. 1!122... 1-Bi WJ «1 What labour wants Mr. McCombß ex-j j plains as follows: — • • I I The Wellington unions arc of opinion , j that the immediate rninimiim demand., should bo the restoration of the .V bonu?. ■; There should th<-n be no redtlcttnn mil wages until prices—"all groups' - —fall t-o' , an average increase of 50 per <vnt over I j 1014 prices: end then only a reJvictic.nl: of 3/. reducing per hour to Z.'T.p; A datum line oould then be fixed for aj . semiskilled worker at 2/1 per hour cor-. ; TPiipondinc with a new wace-price index I number of 100.. which eouM be known as,, the 'datum index. -. Then for every risej or fall of 10 points wajres should or, fall one farthing per hour. This would 1 secure to the worker? the 1»14 9tnruli>rdj I lof comfort end open the way for event- j , • ually securinc a wage Piifiicient to I maintain a fair standard of livinff." It i« qu:fp idle to maintain thnt the rates of wages asked for cannot, bo paid.! because their equivalents were he.me pa:d in 1914 when the value of our exports and our total private wealth wore each only one-half of what they are to day. I Tf the workers cannot immedi.itely h< , paid a waee sufficient "to a fair standard of living. -- and it is not admitted that they cannot, then the least' they should receive is the equivalent of j 1914 rates, nnd industry and commerce, j bank rates, interest and land values, can | adjust themselves accordingly. 1 AUSTRALIAN AKD NEW ZEALAND FIGURES. A STRIKING SIMILARITY. In New South Wales the basic wagej has been reduced by 4/ per week, making, it f3 18/- I" South Australia it had been rtduoed to 12/11 a day. or £3 17/b , a week. It i* Rttrnificant that the-1 workers' representative on the New | South Wales Board agreed to the rednc-l Ition. The effect of the reduction in New Zealand is to make the minimum wage £3 18/5. which is still above the Australian rate. In Australia they worked on the food groups only, as against all I the groups in New Zealand, except in the | case of the miners (surface workers) for! which the food groups were only used, and the figures worked out identically the same, £3 18/5.