EXECUTIVES’ SALARIES

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28699, 24 September 1958, Page 14

EXECUTIVES’ SALARIES

Increases Said To Be Necessary

(New Zealand Press Association) INVERCARGILL, September 23. New Zealand executives are not paid enough, a Wellington businessman, Mr K. Schwarz, told the Invercargill branch of the Institute of Management today. He said that in order to attract top men to industry and commerce, New Zealand would have to take a close look at the salary scale it was prepared to pay executives.

In the last 20 years, the demands on executives and the calibre of the man required had greatly increased. “Yet their remuneration has sadly fallen behind the cost of living and their living standard as fallen behind what it was in 1938,” he said.

The recognised salary for a topline executive in 1938 was £lOOO a year. With the loss in purchasing power and taxation as it is today, £4500. would be a comparable salary.’ The managing-director of one of the leading departmental stores in New Zealand had an income! of £3500 a year. Mr Schwarz said he was quite sure that £4OOO-a-year salaries in industry or commerce in New Zealand were practically nonexistent. In Australia, a far more realistic view was taken of the problem.