BASIC WAGE RISES

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 111, 12 May 1934, Page 24

BASIC WAGE RISES

,WHAT MOVED IT?

MAINLY GOLD AND WOOL

AUSTRALIAN SURVEY

"That the New South Wales Industrial Commission has felt justified in raising the State basic wage to even the modest extent of one shilling per week for males ana sixpence per week for females is a matter for general congratulation," writes the "Sydney Morning Herald" in an editorial. "Considering the- state that the world is in today, to find our labour market holding ita own was as much as many people might have expected. It is now doing somewhat more. The rise of ■ wages may not be very great; it is much less than all well-wishers of the community would have liked to see the Commission able to award. Its importance, however, is as a symptom of the improving industrial health of the btate, which now enables our industries to distribute a million pounds a year amongst the- section of workers subject to State jurisdiction as an addition to their share of the amount earned. Whether a corresponding improvement m the average dividend of the employera affected will be paid there is nothing to show. But from the generally upward trend of industrial stocks it may be inferred that on the whole profits are keeping step with the increasing output, which enables more men to be employed and more money in wages to be distributed. While prudent government has no aoubt been a factor in causing this favourable turn in the long lane of the depression, it would have been impossible without the adventitious aid of circumstances operating outside the sphere of either State or Federal control. Tho big and quite unforeseen advances in tho price of wool and goia have just brought unexpected millions into the country. The influx of this high tide of capital floated off many industrial concerns which the depression had left stranded, and also made it possible for many new enterprises to be launched. HEAPS OP HESITANT CAPITAL. "How long wool and gold are going to maintain their present levels it would require a wise man indeed to say. Ana when our wheat will come into its own again in the world's market, as it is bound to do sooner or later, is equally uncertain. Mr. Bruce, speaking from his oversea knowledge, declares that in regard to the latter product it will at worst be only a matter of marking time at the peak for a while''until progress in production is°resumed. But in the kaleidoscopic conditions now prevailing outside the Commonwealth so many vicissitudes are possiblo that cautious administration was never more neded than it is now. It, is only from the knowledge that the country is not overreaching itself that confidence can come. And until confidence has been restored progress towards recovery must be slow and within narrow bounds. There is money heaped up in the country today in sight of sound enterprises in which its owners are afraid to embark. With wild political schemes of all kinds in the air many investors, hesitating to guess what may eoine next, adopt the- policy of wait and sec. While they wait, recovery, which depends on the extension "of industrial activity, has also to.wait. And while that halts wage rate canv do little better than stand still. What wouia bo the use of the Industrial Commission awarding a wage higher than the industries out of which it had to come couia pay? That could lead only, to less employment and a lower' wage average through a greater number of men earning nothing. UNEMPLOYMENT AT LOW RATES. "Two years after the end of the war, when the work of reconstruction caused money to flow in sudden torrents through the industrial channels, the basic wage for males soared from S3 per week, at which it stood in 1918 to £4 5s per week in 1920. While the hectic period continued the rate fell but little below that level, and, in 1927 when the court was presided over by Judge Piddington, temporarily regained it. Bat that was the harbinger of a quick decline until the stagnation of industry brought it down ana down to zero at SS 6s 6a, one shilling a week below the present award. So, too with the female rate, which, reaching High-water mark in 1927 at £2 6s fell year, by year till it touched bottom in 1933 at SI 16s. Even at these rates the labonr of the State couia not be profitably absorbed, and from 20 to over 30 per cent, of the workers were permanently unemployed. A large proportion are still in that position, from which it is in the interests of everyone that they as, soon as possible be rescued. Political sanity on labour's own part is amongst the things most needed to expedite that work. The ability to raise the basic wago shows that a beginning has been made, and, whether the rise be great or small, in that light it may be regarded as satisfactory. If labour couia get rid of the extremists who by false lights are leading it off the track to recovery, with the unlimited resources this country possesses, Australia might count upon being soon in a position that would give the aistracted woria outside cause for envy."