INCREASE IN WAGES

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 243, 11 July 1938, Page 5

INCREASE IN WAGES

Criticism Of Remark Made By M.P.

Criticism of a remark by Mr. A. S. Richards, M.P. for Roskill, that a 10 ■per cent, increase in wages means only an additional lid. in the. pound sterling to the manufacturer, is expressed in a statement issued by the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Federation. “Wages, as a proportion of total cost, vary considerably in different industries, and in some cases they go up to 75 per cent, of the total factory cost,” the federation says. “It will lie seen that in such eases the factory cost addition in the case of a 10 per cent, increase in wages, is 1/0 in the pound. To talk of lid. in the pound is the height of absurdity. Even where the value of materials bulks largely and wages are only 20 per cent, of the factory cost, a 10 per cent, increase in wages means sd. in the pound. “Mr. Richards is reported as stating that business firms are doing a larger business at a lower percentage of cost in proportion to turnover than they have done during the last 35 years. Unfortunately,'this statement is just as palpably erroneous as the former. “Union officials have stated publicly that employment in their industries is dropping off at an alarming rate. In one centre a union official stated publicly that a factory with 260 employees had been compelled to reduce its number of workers to 150, and was working a 30-hour week. The 30-hour week is, of course, equivalent to a reduction of another 30 to 40 hands.”