DEARER HAIRCUTS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 256, 25 July 1936, Page 11

DEARER HAIRCUTS

Increase in Wellington Probable RETURN TO 1.931 LEVEL There is every likelihood, foilowing a meeting of Wellington city and suburban hairdressers and tobacconists on Thursday night, that the price of haircutting in Wellington will soon be increased. Mr. R. W. Armit presided at the meeting, at which 71 were present, including representatives from t>he Hutt Valley. Consideration was given to formulating some form of stabilised saloon charges, not only within the Wellington district but throughout the Dominion. The meeting passed an instruction to the New Zealand Federation of Hairdressers urgently to proceed with a deputation to the Prime Minister seeking the assistance of the Government in bringing about a Dominion stabilised scale of charges on the 1931 level, thus protecting the interests of al! parties engaged in the trade.

Secretary’s Statement.

“Since July 1 employers of labour in the trade have been faced with a sulbstanbially-increased wages bill, and the margin provided for in the existing scale of charges has been found to be insufficient to meet that increase,” said the secretary of the Wellington Provincial Tobacconists and Hairdressers’ Association, in a. statement to “The Dominion.” “There are instances,” he added, “where employers are now receiving actually less than their employees.” The meeting had been very substantially in favour of returning to the 1931 scale of saloon charges, Mr. Franklin said. These, for haircutting, had been 1/6 as compared with 1/3 at present, and for boys and girls 1/- as against the present charge of 9d. The stabilisation of saloon charges had always been an exceedingly difficult problem, insomuch as there were in the trade a large number of businesses employing no outside labour. The charges made to the public by those saloons depended entirely on what the proprietor-operator was prepared to accept for his own wages, and were not governed by the same fixed overhead costs the employer of labour had to meet.

Feeling of Meeting. “The feeling of the meeting was definitely in favour of better conditions and better rates of pay for assistants in the trade,” Mr. Franklin continued, “but it was emphasised that these would only be practicable if the 1931 scale was in operation. “There are approximately 117 hairdressers in business within a radius of 25 miles, the area governed by the Wellington award, and the opinion of those not present at the meeting is to be sought on the question of return to the 1931 scale. Until this has been obtained no move will be made to increase charges.”