THE BASIC WAGE

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 176, 22 April 1937, Page 12

THE BASIC WAGE

Plight of Some Types of Young Men

ECONOMIC DOOR SHUT

Boys Tending to Leave

School Earlier

Adverse effects of the basic wage, on two classes of potential workers — unskilled clerical types in their early twenties, ami boys attending secondary schools —were discussed yesterday by the representative of a Wellington young men's institution and a headmaster.

Concern over I lie predicament of a class of young men witli which lie has much to do —the unskilled non-manual worker in the early twenties—was expressed by Mr. Leu J. Greenberg, general secretary of the Y.M.C.A. He said he could acknowledge the values obtaining with the better distribution of wages, but felt something was wrong. He knew this both instinctively and from bis experience of dealing with young men.

In the first place boys were being induced to leave school prematurely through the lure of high wages. The tragedy was that many were going into dead-end and vocationless careers. This would mean that at a critical stage of their lives they would be out of the labour market. He had no hesitation in saying that ruling rates of wages for boys were too high. “My experience of the basic wage reveals that because of the barrier of awards it is becoming increasingly difficult to place young men from l'J years onward of the unskilled non-manual type,” said Mr. Greenberg. “It is nearly impossible to get them into any job at all, let alone one which will offer them a future and the possibility of marriage.” Under-rate Permits Refused. Mr. Greenberg spoke of another class of young men on whose behalf representations for jobs had proved of no avail. These were a type not quite normal mentally and not physically fit enough for manual toil. Applications for under-rate workers' permits in their case had been refused on the ground it bat it was inadvisable to break into award rates. He would like to be informed on what this type of young man was going to do, with no means of livelihood. Referring generally to the attitude of employers with whom he had discussed the basic wage. Mr. Greenberg said he had found them disinclined to pay £3/16/- for men in their early twenties, who during the depression lost their opportunity of training through being ithrown out of work and who now found Ihe economic door barred against them. This applied to young men arriving from overseas (of whoin'tlie Y.M.C.A. met a number) and do our own New Zealand youth. Asked if he could cite instances where young men in jobs had lost them when due for the basic wage. Mr. Greenberg replied that the Y.M.C.A. boy placement department had records of numerous cases of such a kind. Employers, mostly in the small shop and warehouse business, had told the young fellows is a straightforward manner that the concerns could not stand the basic wage, and they would have to go. More Elasticity, Needed. Replying to a question as to whether he could see any remedy,. Mr. Greenberg said that all he could suggest was that there should be more elasticity in the awards until the victims of the depression years were absorbed into industry. Under-rate workers’ permits issued for a reasonable time to enable young men to acquire knowledge and skill in a particular calling, and so become worih the £3/16/- to their employers would materially assist toward a solution. Mr. Greenberg said there was another side to the problem. He recognised that if under-rate permits were issued indiscriminately there would be a tendency to break down the awards', which were intended as a safeguard in industry against, the unscrupulous employer. But it did seem that elasticity was needed, together -with a more generous altitude toward the young man who was anxious to enter business or trade, and who was debarred for no other reason than that he was the victim of circumstances beyond his control. Effect on Boys at School. The effect of the basic wage on youths still at school was discussed by Mr, F. Martyn Renner, headmaster of the Rongotai College. He said the difficulty at present facing the secondary schools was to keep the boys at college long enough to equip themselves for entering business. His inquiries among business people had shown that they were strongly of opinion that the boy who would be most useful was the boy who bad secured a thoroughly sound general education and who had been taught to think for himself. A disturbing feature of the times was the vast absorption of boy labour, with the unemployment, problem still unsolved. Parents, fearful of the future of their boys, were seeking to place their sons in situations, A livelihood being the first consideration above the necessity for a sound secondary education. He was afraid that there would be a large increase in the floating populations of the schools. This year boys were coming into the colleges for only two or three years, and leaving before the schools were able to do their job. The result was that the higher forms would be peopled only by youths going iu for the learned professions, most of the others leaving in the scramble for jobs. They were losing a lot of valuable material from I lie fourth and fifth forms, Ihe boys leaving lo go into industry while still young. Slowly but surely we were building up a strata of half-educated people entering industry ill-equipped to think for themselves, and a prey to every new doctrine Unit emerged.