Equal Pay For Equal Work

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 165, 15 July 1939, Page 3 (Supplement)

Equal Pay For Equal Work

An Old Problem From A New Angle

MISS SMITH'S face was rather red and her eyes blazed. "Why shouldn't a girl get the same pay if she does the same work?" she asked belligerently. The lirnt iiH-istimt settled his collar, rmiglied iMi'l 7>n-|i;i i<ml to d , mulish tin , I'lH'lliy, luit tin , second assistant »»< lieforo him. "<,)nitc ri;:ht. Miss Smith." In- said. "f quite ajrree with you. If ii woman can do tin , work she should In , |<nid for it. Y'Hi Mini Idn much the same work. We -In'lnl about tin , s>l mi' lime over it. iiml irct rutin*! , similar ri'Hiilti>. I don't claim that my wink U worth nny more tlinn your*, Hut my vi iff work* harder tluiii cither of us. She has in nm the house ami look lifter the I'hililriMi. Von nie iilile to make H hurried rush for breakfast iilioiit eight o'clock in the iiMirniiiir. Hetty has to fled the luiliy lit li\e. When lie is safely tucked away again. Joan makes quite certain tliat there is m< more sleep for tliHt day. And there are mighty lew spells during the da}'. "Probably you would lie surprised to know just how much work two young children can make. I prefer teaching lit school here, any time. And the day doesn't finish until somewhere about ten o'clock at nijjht. At least it finishes then, with liu-k, l»ut occasionally there is a. night shift too. Talk about a fortyhour week . . . Betty woultl lie very happy with nn eighty hour week. And now what about equul pay for equal work? What is Itetly's salary? She might to j;et as much a* you or I with ii liberal allowance for overtime, but she nothing." "Yes, but whojjp childl-en are they?" interposed M'ims Smith, now that there \\n« an opportunity to j:et in a word jiL.Niin. "When I bought my car I expected to have to upend some time cleaning it and looking after it. You must pay for pleasures and people wouldn't have children if they didn't think it ivmm worth while.' . Potential Mothers Fewer The second assistant snorted. "All the time you spend looking after your car is harmless, but we'll pass that. We'll take it, for granted that people have children because they do think it is worth while. Now if you will look up recent birth rate statistics you will liml that there are not enough children being horn in this country to keep up tin; present population, Perha|w you'll admit now that people are not having children, because they think it is not worth while?" "Wait n minute," interrupted the infant mistress. "I think you are exaggerating a bit there, Mr. Mason. If I remember rightly the birth rate for last year wae seventeen per thousand mid the death rate only about nine per thousand. It looks to me ns though the population is increasing ut the ruto of eight per thousand." "Your ligures are quite right. Mis* Wither*, but figures are very often deceptive," explained Mr. Mason. "If we lire to maintain our population it is not enough that the number of birth* should lie greater than the number of dentils. What is important is that the potential mot he i* of today should be replaced by an equal number of potential niothei« for to-morrow. This is what the statisticians call the ' net reproduction rate.' If these mother* are doubled. which of course is quite impossible, the rate is two; if they are not being replaced completely the rate is less tin ne. That w our position at present. The la«t figures give the rate as If.lMHi. That means that in, say, twenty years, there will be lews mothers, or potential mothers, than now, so that if the birth rate per potential mother reniaina the same, the birth rate per thousand population will be much lese iin<l must eventually be leas than the death rate. The die is already cast and we have already a declining population. So you see. Miss Smith, many people evidently find that children are not worth while." Children v. Public Works Mason now had the floor properly, and « P were content to let him go on. Kvidently lie had been doing some thinking about the matter.

"Rut we are getting away from the point," he proceeded. "Miee Smith says that her car gives her a certain amount

of work. But if she did not ha\ e the car it. miyht be better for the country as a. whole. It would save Mr. Xa.-h some worry about import control, for instance. Children entail considerably more work, but where would we be without them? They are absolutely essential to the country. 'We can do without loads and bridges, but we cannot do without children. Met hers do more towards rearing the future generation than we teachers do. Why should they not be paid by the Stater Thai would give true equality. "Women cannot have real equality with men w lien ui\ es are dependent 111 1<iii their husband™' salaries. If they l;o out to work (hey have a double j d>. Keeping hou.se may !ie fairly etif.v with modern laboiir-sa viirj dev ices, but under the best of circumstances a wife has a burden which her husband seldom knows. And if there are children the wife can't work at all. .1 u.~t at a tiinr when expenses are highest, too. Where is the equality here? ".liist because the family unit was a satisfactory basin for primitive farm life we persist in making it the basis for our present indn-trial life t«<o. On the old fashioned farm hii-hand and wif-. , were partners in a very real sense. I'h.MV «>—— —

' was a division of labour, but both contributed to the gene ml upkeep of the i family, 'i'he wife did the spinning and r weaving, the buttermaking and cooking. She made the clothes and cared for the ' children. Her husband ploughed and sowed and did the heavier work. The 1 produce that was sold brought in inonev to pay the rent and buy extras, which 1 could not be supplied by the farm.

I ByC. /. Adcock

'"But see what happened later. The industrial age came and the husband, instead of working at home, had to go and work in a factory. The majority "\ men are now working for wages in this way. Their «i\es in most case-, remain at home and look (ifter the home. Th-re j> les- work tn do tli.in formerly. Inn often stlllicient In prevent their going out to wi rk at a regular job. and in any case -ueh jobs are often hard to get. What happens then'; The husband

expects his employer to pay him suflicient to keep his wife too. But the wife is not helping the husband to produce. He produces m> more than if he were unmarried. Why then should he be paid more'.' The employer usually fails to see any reason and refuses to pay any more. He pays the man and not the family. The family is no longer a production unit. "The result of all this is to delay marriage and restrict the bir'li rate. A boy ,and ;i girl niny each ha\ t - a wage sufficient to keep them in comfort, but it' liny marry and try to manage on the bey's wage* they must economise M-verely. I'robably they prefer to wait until the potential husband is earning Millicieiit to keep them both in a fair degree of comfort. Then they probably have to wait again before they can , ftli'ord to have children. Meanwhile cwryhody is profoundly worried about , I lie diminishing birth rate. And all they can do about it is t<> exhort other people Io have" more children! As if people are going to have children ju-t out of <i »en-e of duty to the State. They will have one or even two children, if they can all'ord it. because the desire for offspring is implanted so r-trongly

by Mother Nature, but then they are satisfied. They have learned just how much sacrifice is involved in parenthood, and if anyone else wishes more children in the country then the same anyone else is welcome to do a bit of the sacrifice.

'"If you want a higher birth rate you have got to pay for it. And by paving for it I do not mean any trifling bonuses or family allowances. I have often heard people assert thet bonuses and family allowances are practically useless to stimulate the birth rate. Of course. What can you expect? Do you think a, woman is going to sentence herself to .-several years of toil and worry for the sake of a few pounds which will not even cover out of pocket e.\[tenses? "So, if you want more children you must be prepared to pay the full cost. You must |p<iv for nurses and creches to lighten the burden of the mother, and then you must pay her well for her actual work. Of course, that is revolutionary, but then there iias been a revolution in our social life, and you can't live with one foot in the past and one in the present. You musi complete the change. According to statisticians the population of England, on.-iiining the present trend" continue, will have decreased to four and a half iiiil'.'ons in less than :\ hundred years: Perhaps, before then, we shall really have adopted the plan «.f "equal pay for equal work:' If not we shall prolxihly be last following the .-aiue patli of extinction."