WAGES IN AUSTRALIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18380, 21 April 1923, Page 12

WAGES IN AUSTRALIA.

N.S. WALES BASIC RATE. FIXED AT £3 193 PER WEEK. FINDING OP THE BOARD. The Board of Trade has fixed the basic wage for adult male employees in New South Wales at £3 19s per week and for adult female employees 'at £2 per week. In making this declaration tiie president of the board, Judge Beeby, said the board again heard evidence and argument on a proposal that it should adopt sectional declarations put forward by the representatives of industrial concerns engaged in the production and treatment of metals. The board was not empowered to consider the needs of any particular industry, nor was it sufficiently impressed by the arguments put forward on this occasion to alter its attitude.. He added: "The board is convinced on its . experience that in dealing with the fixation of minima depending on averages, the accuracy of determinations increases in proportion to the wideness of the area furnishing the data from which averages are derived. , Taking rent as an illustration the average rent at the census of 1921 of houses having from three to five rooms varied from 6s Id, at Bourke and Braidwood, to 8s at Morpeth, lis 9d at Martland, 14s at Casino, 16s 9d at Auburn, 17s 9d at Newcastle, 19s 4d at Rockdale, 21s 8d at Petersham, and 28s Id at Manly; the municipal areas being taken in each case; and the rent of houses with four rooms varied similarly from 4s Id to 22s lOd. '

"The cost of food varies but little, and in the case of men's clothing the range is only a matter of 20 per cent, among the 11 typical towns investigated by the board. But the cost of fuel and lighting presents even greater statistical difficulties than the cost of shelter. "The cost 6f food and groceries, rent and clothing, form altogether 80 per cent. of the total average cost of ; living, and the variation in prices of these items in different districts is not nearly so marked as is that of the items of fuel and lighting and miscellaneous expenditure. "In arriving at' its determination with regard to the wage that should be fixed on this occasion, attention has been paid to the trend of prices as from the beginning of the year 1922. The subjoined table shows the movement of prices derived by the board's formula (corrected to accord with the census figures available since 1921, and to allow for the exclusion of rural populations) for the six months ending with each month specified.

"When the board made its declaration in the month of May, 1922, the average cost of living for the period of six months ending with the March preceding stood at £3 17s 3d. The boardV. declaration was for a wage of £3 18s. When in the month of October, the board again declared a wage of £3 18s, the average for the period of six months ending with the month of August, was £3 17s 3d. - Since the board last fixed the living wage, there has b»en an increase in the cost of living as dorived :by its formula of lid on the sixmonthly averages as disclosed in the table. The board having both in May and October last, on the basis of the ; cost 1 of living of £3 17s 3d, fixed a wage of £3 18s is now constrained, on the basis of a cost of living of £3 18s 2d, to increase the wage by Is." •