THE BASIC WAGE POSSIBLE HARDSHIP

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 25, 29 July 1936, Page 10

THE BASIC WAGE

POSSIBLE HARDSHIP

SERVICE AND PAY

Inquiries made recently show there Is a danger dial the fixing of a basic

rale of wages on such a scale as is I provided for in the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Amendment Act, 193G, will be a hindrance and cause hardship to one section of. the community if the position is not remedied. That section is the youths, particularly those of 18 and 19 years of. age, whose chances of gaining worthwhile and permanent employment may bo prejudiced in many cases solely because employers engaging them will be required to pay them the basic wage when they become 21, irrespective of other qualifications for such a wage. It is claimed that already, although the basic rate of wages for adult workers has not been fixed, the effects of this enactment have become apparent. THE BASIC WAGE PROVISION. By section 3 of the I.C. and A. Amendment Act, 1936, the Court is required by a general order to fix the basic rates of wages for adult male and female workers respectively. For adult male workers it is laid down that the rate is to be sufficient to enable a man to maintain a wife and three children in a fair and reasonable standard of comfort. This section overrides the provisions of any award or industrial agreement relating to wages, for it is stipulated that while any general order fixing a basic rate of wages remains in force, no adult male or female worker in any industry covered by an award or industrial agreement may receive less than the basic rate fixed by the order. There is, it is true, provision for the issue of a permit for a worker to.receive less than the basic rate, but that is to apply only in special cases. The opinion has been expressed that the effect of such an enactment is to place a .big ■ obstacle in the way of youths of 18 and 19 desiring to learn a trade, and also those of that age who wish to enter an office, take up a profession, or engage in any occupation requiring an extended training period. Hitherto unionism has not been so all-embracing in New Zealand as it is to become, and for this reason the youth going into an office at 18 or 19 years of age has had no cause for concern, but, according to views expressed to a "Post" reporter, he is in an entirely different position today with New Zealand facing a new order of things in which unionism among many more sections of workers —including those in offices—than have been members of unions in the past has a prominent part.

The contention made is that it will be uneconomical for employers to engage untrained youths of 18 and 19 years of age and keep them in their employ after their twenty-first birthday, because it is felt that after so short a period of training the services of such youths, in the majority of cases, would not be worth to the employers a wage "sufficient to enable a man in receipt thereof to maintain a wife and three children in a fair and reasonable standard of comfort."

Already, so "The Post" reporter was informed, there was ah indication of this trend of events developing, there being a good demand apparently for younger boys but few inquiries for those of maturer years. It was stated by one man that his experience was that employers are definitely afraid of the basic wage so far as apprenticeship orders are concerned, and that he had found that in making application for apprentices employers stipulated that the boys must not be over 16 years of age.