'SLOPPY SENTIMENT'

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 76, 31 March 1933, Page 9

'SLOPPY SENTIMENT'

WAGE TAX EXEMPTION PRIVILEGE OF DOMESTICS. OBJECTION TO PRINCIPLE. "I object to a privileged class being created," said Miss Ellen Melville, of Auckland, when a recommendation that domestics in private employment should not be exempt from the wages tax was before the annual conference of the National Council of Women of New Zealand. "Those who exempted domestics when this tax was imposed," Miss Melville continued, "allowed a lot of sloppy sentiment to influence them. The women who follow this employment are honoured and valued citizens who should be prepared to share the burden of the tax. If the national council stands for equality for women, it cannot endorse this perniciouy exception." Miss M. Trent, of Christchurch, said it wae an anomaly that domestics should be exempted when girls in tearooms must pay wages tax not only on the money they actually received, but also on the deduction made for food. "I feel strongly," Miss Trent continued, "that all classes of women workers should be taxed equally. As a matter of fact, it is the domestice who receive the most help from unemployment committees." Mrs. Drake was the only speaker to oppose the recommendation. She thought it was unfair to tax domestics, whose work was unpopular and tedious and involved long hours. Making the conditions more favourable encouraged girls to be competent in the home. The remit was carried.