MINIMUM WAGE BILL

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24743, 7 December 1945, Page 4

MINIMUM WAGE BILL

INCLUSION OF ALL WORKERS REFERENCES MADE TO STABILISATION (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Dec. 6. Described by the Prime Minister as a bill setting a wage standard below which no worker could go, the' Minimum Wage Bill was dealt with in the House of .Representatives this evening. The Hon. J. O'Brien, moving the second reading, said there had been a minimum wage for a number of years in many industries and a basic wage had frequently been declared by the Abritration Court, but. these had riot covered all workers. This bill did not leave anyone out, no matter whether they were covered by an award or not. The problem of giving people a wage that would assure them the necessities of life was one that had exercised the minds of many countries and-New Zealand had been in the forefront of the minimum wage provision. When the minimum wage of 4s a week for boys and girls was introduced toward the end of last century, it was declared that the country would be ruined and that story has been repeated often as minimum rates were improved, the Minister said. Under-rate permits were necessary because men, who were partially incapacitated, should be enabled to earn, even if they could not be paid a full wage. The Court's cost of living increases were not payable on top of the minimum rates prescribed in the bill. The rates provided only for an ordinary standard of living and the bill was not a luxury one. The Leader of the Opposition (Mr.S. G. Holland) said there had been insufficient time to give the bill the study it deserved. Everyone who worked was entitled to a wage enabling him to keep himself and his family in decency and security. He thought they were entitled to still more. They were entitled to luxuries and should be able to put something aside for a rainy day.' They should also be enabled to own their own homes. The Government came in as a Labour Government and it could not be denied that it had done good for the working people. - Mr Holland traced increases in the basic wage rates since 1936 and said: "To-night legislation has been brought down that is a frank confession that the cost of living is galloping away from the worker." Mr Holland said there were people to-day who were not getting what they deserved because of stabilisation.

Mr O'Brien: You can pay them what you like.. Mr Holland said he hoped every employer in New Zealand had heard the Minister's interjection. It was what they had been waiting to hear. Mr Firaser said there was no doubt that stabilisation was still in operation. Mr Holland said if the employers could get female labour at three guineas a week as against men at five guineas it was going to create a shortage of labour in the homes. Rehabilitation might also be prejudiced by a tendency for employers to engage female labour at lower rates. Mr Holland said the cost of living had increased to such *an extent that he did not know how a- man could live on five guineas a week. He did not think it would be a good thing to have a difference in wages between single and married workers. Answ*-- ing an interjection, he said he wc_id give equal pay for equal work, men and women alike. The Government said it believed in that but the Government did not practise what it preached.

The Prime Minister said if the Leader of the Opposition would move an amendment for equal pay for equal work he would accept it. They would have to see where such a thing would lead them. Next session a committee would study the problem, take evidence, and find out where such a principle would get them. In his opinion it would mean a complete alteration to the wages system. There was the question of a single" man working beside a married man for the same wages, and all sorts of complications. It would disorganise the economic system and would require careful study. Asfar as women undercutting men was concerned, the Government had adopted a policy of full employment, which meant that employment had to be found or the minimum family income paid. There was no danger as far as rehabilitation or employment was concerned.

"This bill will remove unduly low wages and prevent anything in the nature of sweating coming back to New Zealand," he said. At present its benefits were limjted because most awards were higher. Mr Fraser, answering a question, said f~i»i n «, the v-?P ir lL 011 of thos e who framed the bill, the cost of living bonuses did not apjsly. The bill was passed.