MINIMUM WAGE RATES

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26198, 23 August 1950, Page 8

MINIMUM WAGE RATES

PARLIAMENT

AMENDING BILL PASSED APPLICATION OF RECENT COURT ORDER (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, August 22. The House of Representatives spent this afternoon and evening on the Minimum Wage Amendment Bill, giving it its second and tnird readings. The bill increases the minimum rates of wages for workers not covered by awards or agreements so as to give effect to the recent interim general order of the Arbitration Court. It increases the rate for males from £6 5s to £6 Ils 8d a week and for women from £4 3s to £4 8s a week. Opposition speakers claimed that the increases lor which the bill makes provision were insufficient to offset the increases in the cost of living. The Minister of Labour (Mr W. Sullivan) replying to the second reading debate, said that exactly the same procedure had been followed as on previous occasions when under the Labour Government a measure was brought down to bring the minimum wage into line with wage pronouncements by the Arbitration Court. Mr A. McLagan ‘Opposition, Riccarton), in the committee stage of the bill, asked the Minister if he would accept an amendment to give men and women the same weekly wage increase as they had received in the past—los. There would then, he said, oe no criticism of the bill from the Opposition, and the disparity between men’s and women’s wages w’ou’d not be so apparent. Issue of Equal Pay

The Minister of Health (Mr J. T. Watts) said it was time the Opposition stopped talking of equal pay for, women. Miss M. B. Howard (Opposi-i tion, Sydenham) had been in the. House when the Minimum Wage Bill I was passed in 1945 and when it was i amended in 1947 and 1949, yet there had remained a difference of £2 2s between the minimum wage for men and women. Had Miss Howard, who now protested that women should receive -equal pay, protested on those Miss Howard “said that—the Labour Party had always proclaimed the justice of equal pay for equal workwomen were hot charged less by the Railways Department for a train ticket or by the Post Office for any of its services. The cost of living was the same for women as for men.

Mr T. P. Shand (Government, Marlborough) said that about 11,000 people were affected by the bill, and if its Urms were varied the balance was likely to be upset. He would say that almost every one of those people had already received the wage increase. Mr Sullivan said it would be fair to say that a great majority of the people who were affected by the bill were now being paid more than the minimum wage.

After further debate on the short title, which eventually was agreed to, Mr McLagan introduced an amendment to increase Vie hourly rate by 3d. the daily rate by 2s. and the weekly rate by 10s for men and women alike. The amendment was not accepted on the ground that it involved an appropriation. The bill was put through the committee stages and given a third readPassed, the House rising at 1U.25 p.m.

PARLIAMENTARY DAY

(From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) a/to WELLINGTON, August 22. , £ f l er 5? lgh A Iy more than five hours’ debate the House of Representatives Passed the Minimum Wage Amendment oill without amendment a few minutes before it adjourned this evening. The bill, which increases the minimum rates of wages prescribed by the Minimum Wage Act, 1945, for workers not covered by awards or agreements so as to give effect to the recent interim general wage order of the Arbitration Court, made unexpectedly slow progress in the. second-reading debate. Opposition members took the opportunity to speak on the rise in the cost of living, and claimed that the increases provided by the bill were insufficient to offset it. They argued that the minimum wage increase should have been at least 10s a week for both men and women. In the committee stages Mr A. McLagan (Opposition, Riccarton) moved an amendment providing for increases for men and women alike of 3d in the hourly rate. 2s in the daily rate, and 10s in the weekly rate. The Chairman of Committees (Mr C. G. Harker) ruled the amendment out of order as it involved an appropriation. In the afternoon the House made a late start because of the State luncheon to the Australian Prime Minister (Mr R. G. Menzies). Two renorts were tabled—the annual reports of the Air Department and the the Social Security Department. The House adjourned at 10.25 p.m. until 2.30 p.m. to-morrow, when Ministerial replies to members’ questions will be discussed and the second-read-ing debate of the Medical Research Council Pill will be taken.