GOVERNMENT PAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 69, 18 September 1937, Page 8

GOVERNMENT PAY

(To the Editor.)

Sir,— According to "The Post" of September 7, Mr. McKeen was astonished at the inadequacy of the basic wage fixed by the Arbitration Court. I wont der whether he considers £4 4s per week, which is the amount many Civil Servants at present receive, an adequate salary. In the same issue of "The Post" the Government's proposals for subsidising certain apprentices' wages are given. It appears that youths commencing apprenticeship at the age of 19 years will receive in their second year £3 12s 6d per week. Surely then the Government cannot consider it just to employ men. with many years' experience, and some with large families, at £4 4s. The writer's husband, recently applied for a position with a private firm, but was told they could not afford to pay more than £5, and that the Government would ■ not permit them to employ him at that salary, so we are obliged to be content (?) with £4 4s.

It is obvious from the utterances of various members that the Government sincerely desires that all may have a "living wage," so one must conclude that it is ignorant of the wages some of its own employees receive.—l am, etc.,

WAHINE.