A FAIR WAGE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 1188, 10 December 1924, Page 10

A FAIR WAGE.

PROBLEAI FOR COURT. JUDGE’S DILEMMA. What is a fair wage? According to Judge Curlewis’s opinions, contained in a judgment in the Arbitration Court in Sydney, the question presents a knotty economic problem. “The usual answer is that the wage should represent the value of the work done,” said the Judge. “But what is the worth of work or of anything except what the buyer will give for it? “If Alilton could only get a few pounds for Paradise Lost, then in 1667 Paradise Lost was worth only a few pounds. “If a moving picture actor receives many thousands of pounds a year for imitating conduct which in real life would earn him a sentence os an habitual criminal, then it is worth many thousands a year to imitate an habitual criminal.” The Judgo then referred to a' suggestion that a fair wage was the wage paid by a

fair employer. “The question then rises,” lie said, “what is a fair employer?” “The only answer can bo: The employer who pays a fair wage. “This immediately throws us back to the original problem—what is a fair wage?” Referring to the particular award before him the Judge remarked that in his opinion the Legislature intended that the court should award a fair wage. “The Legislature has expressly said that, no matter what the ruling rate might bo in an industry, no one is to be paid less than the living wage,” he added.