HIGH WAGES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 107, 1 November 1941, Page 8

HIGH WAGES

UNSKILLED YOUTHS

£5 A WEEK EARNED

INSTANCES GIVEN

From time to time statements are made that youths who have never been apprentices to trades demand and receive for their unskilled labour wages which even skilled tradesmen are not paid. This week the Wellington Technical College Board of Governors discussed the matter, and one of the members, Mr. E. Brooking, remarked: "When there are boys earning up to £5 and £6 a .week and apprentices getting 22s 6d, you can't wonder at apprentices losing interest."

Commenting on the report of the discussion at the meeting, Mr. P. M. Butler, secretary of the New Zealand Labourers" and Related Trades, has written to "The Post" as follows:—

"We are intensely interested in the rates of wages mentioned, as we have family men averaging £3 10s per week engaged on work' which can by no means be called unskilled, and if the gentlemen reported at 'the meeting would kindly indicate to us where these high rates can be eai-ned, they will be doing us and our workers a considerable service in that we can make ararngements for family men to obtain wages in excess of the average which our workers are receiving at the present time, namely, £3 10s. Failure to supply the particulars requested will confirm our opinion that the talk was so much blather, not substantially based."

STOCKING FACTORIES.

Mr. Butler's letter was submitted to Mr. Brooking, who, in reply, stated that on Wednesday a boy came to him from the Placement Office. The boy was aged 18, and said that he had been paid £5 a week at his last job, and Mr. Brooking was obliged to start him at that figure in order to secure him.

While in a stocking factory recently, Mr. Brooking said, he saw working there two boys recently employed by him. Through personal acquaintance with the manager of one of these factories, he knew that over a dozen boys were working in such establishments, none of whom - were getting less than £5 a week. Some of the work con"sisted in placing stockings on steam moulds and taking them off again.

Confirmation of these wages for boys in general was sought from the Labour Department. It was stated that the Department was chiefly concerned with seeing that the boys were placed at minimum award rates, and that it was not so much concerned with what was eventually paid by the employer. Long hours were worked by some of the boys, and overtime had to be paid, while in other cases piecework conditions obtained, which would account for the high wages being received. Nearly all awards provided for overtime, generally time and a half to double time, and in some instances treble' time. Where a boy proved a good worker, and apt at his work, he could doubtless earn more money than others. , The Department was, however, chiefly concerned with the observance of the award provisions.

WORKING AT PRESSURE.

, The industry was working at pressure in order to catch up with the national shortage of the product, the manager of one stocking factory said. Skill was an important factor. Some of the boys who had taken the places of skilled men were doing better than the men had done. ■ It was found, in fact, that boys of 17 were giving better results than tradesmen in many cases. Some girls were earning £5 and £6 a week. Many of the workers were satisfied to earn from £3 to £4 a week, and then stop work for. the week. There were two boys of 18, whose award rate was 40s a week, who earned on the average £7 a week, but they had both skill' and the incentive to earn money. One boy of 15, whose award rate was 22s 6d, was earning £2 ss: Another of 17, whose award rate was 33s 6d, was earning an average of £4 10s. There was one skilled tradesman who could make £9 a week of 40 hours if assisted by an apt youth. The manager said that his trouble was not the wages being paid, but the difficulty in getting workers to carry on when they had. earned what they considered sufficient for their immediate needs.