WAGES COMPARED

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 129, 28 November 1923, Page 9

WAGES COMPARED

ENGLAND AND NEW

ZEALAND

REDUCTION OF MANUFACTUR

ING COSTS

CO-OPERATION WITH EMPLOYEES.

The relation between the cost of living and the wages payable in certain trades in Great Britain and New Zealand is dealt with in some detail in the twentyfirst annual report of the New Zealand Employers' Federation, presented at the annual meeting to-day. The report uses the figures quoted as the basis for some interesting comment upon the wage standard in New Zealand, and for a few words of advice to employers. Dealing with general conditions of industry, the report recorded that the year 1922-23, while somewhat less fruitful of important events in the industrial world than some other recent years, had been a difficult and trying one for all engaged in the secondary industries of the Dominion. In Great Britain, owing to the cessation of borrowing since the war, and the equalisation by taxation of the Government revenue and expenditure, deflation had been put into effect, with the result that, whereas the cost of living at one time stood at 213 per cent, higher than 1914, it had iuw fallen to only 65 per cent, higher, and wages had been reduced to a corresponding level. In New Zealand the cost, of living rose to 78 per cent, above the 1914 standard, and has now fallen to 42 per cent. SOME COMPARISONS. The report sets out in detail a comparative statement of wages in some of the leading industries in England and New Zealand, the English rates being quoted in the majority of cases from the " British Labour Gazette." The range of wages paid per 48-hour week in the boot and shoe manufacturing trade at Home is given as from 18s per week at 16 years of. age to 65s per week as a standard wage after 23 years of age; the range for apprentices in New Zealand, with a 44-hour week, is from 15s for the first six months' service to' £2 per week, and the - minimum rate for experienced workers is Is lid per. hour, or £4 4s 4d per week. The female rates in England are shown as from 16s per week at 16 years to 34s per week standard rate, as against 15s to 35s per week for first years of service in New Zealand, and 47s 6d per week thereafter, or 55s for certain work. In the engineering and ship-re-pairing industry in England.the wages are shown as varying from 61s to 96s per week, according to classification, while in New Zealand the' Arbitration Court's standard rate is 2s o|d per hour for a' week of 44 hours, or 88s lid to • 94s 5d per week. Females employed in the paper-box making trade at Home receive 29s 6d per week for time work, or 31s 6d per week on piecework, as compared _ with 43s per' week in' Otago. Workers in the furniture trade are paid Is 6£d per hour (plus id tool money) in England, while the rate in. New Zealand Js from 2s O^d to 2s lgd per hour. lii, the building-trades the following comparisons as between England and New Zealand respectively are made:—Carpenters, Is 3£d to Is 7d per hour, 2s lid to 2s: 2^d per hour; plumbers, Is 6£d to Is Bd,\ 2s,l|d; electricians, "is 3|d, 2s IJd; labourers, ,10£ dto Is 2£d, Is B|d; other skilled workers, Is 3J,d to Is 7d, 2s IJd. Horse and motor vehicle drivers at Home receive from £2 15s to £3 8s per week, a3 compared with from £3 17s to £4 6s 6d in the Dominion. Tramway employees are on a different basis in the two countries, the comparison's being set.out as follow on weekly and hourly rates respectively :—Motormen, 52s 3d to 59s per week, Is lOd to Is lid per hour; conductors,' 50s 3d to 595, Is 9d to Is 9Jd; labourers, 50s 3d to 555, Is 9£d to In Hid. ; The difference between British and New Zealand wages, the report stated, is alone sufficient to give the British manufacturer a great advantage over his New Zealand competitor, and h e had the 'additional great advantage of specialisation and mass production, which was impossible of attainment in New Zealand. Some of the trades quoted were not entering into direct competition with JN.ew Zealand, but they were included because of the interdependence of all trades in.any country,' and with the object of showing a proper comparison between the general standard of the two countries. A COMPLICATED PROBLEM. «.„',?* *!f- ew i Z!al J and wr« self-contained and entirely independent of all other countries in the matter of trade," the report continued, "it would not matter what money wages we paid so long as a proper relationship wag maintained between our several classes of workers, but it must be obvious that while we are not so independent we can pay Only such wages as will enable us to carry on our secondary industries in competition with those of other countries. The problem is complicated in two ways. Our secondary industries might be given a sufficient tariff protection to enable them to withstand outside competition if we were able, at will to increase the selling price of our primary products sufficiently to provide the additional national income that would be required as a result of increased prices; and, on the other hand, the wages in those industries which are feeling competition most might be' reduced but for the fact that wages are high in the purely local industries that do not feel competition, and that "these high wages are keeping the cost of living up for the whole community. "If it were possible to bring about a reduction of all wages to a uniform standard, about on a parity with that of Great Britain, the cost of living would fall, the workers, although drawing less money wages, would suffer through this fall no loss in real wages, and our industries would readily meet outside competition. This, however, cannot be accomplished, and the situatibn must be faced as it is, and not as it might be. THE TARIFF. "The tariff question requires careful thought. It is upsetting and in the ion? run impossible to have one standard of wages in the towns and another in the country. A higher tariff than at present in order to safeguard those secondary industries which have less or no national protection would bear hardly upon the primary industries^ Manufacturing costs must therefore be reduced in every way, and it is suggested that employers should in all cases consider: (1) The wider adoption of piecework methods; (2) the most efficient methods oE using machinery and plant; (3) the creation of the greatest possible measure of co-operation witli their employees ; and that in all matters pertaining to industrial disputes they should avail themselves of the advice and services of the officers of the Employers' Associations and this federation. "It is satisfactory to be able to report, as somewhat of a set-off to the foregoing, that the primary, producer* have.

had better prices for all products than in the previous year, and that for the opening of the new season the outlook for prices is not unfavourable. The national income has therefore been increased, and the effect of this has been marked in the very much lessened unemployment last winter as compared with the previous year."