MARRIAGE AND BUSINESS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19321, 7 May 1926, Page 7

MARRIAGE AND BUSINESS.

Bachelor girls in the bigger banks in England who receive offers of marriage will in future have to choose definitely between home and the City. In announcing a pensions scheme for the girls and women on their staff, the directors of Barclays Bank, Ltd., lay it down as a rule that on marriage the girl will be required to relinquish her position in the bank. But on doing so she will receive a gratuity equal to five per cent, of her annual salary for every completed year of service. " In most banks," said an official of the Bank Officers' Guild to a correspondent, " there has been hitherto do hard-and-fast rule with regard to marriage. "It has been left to, the discretion of the management whether a girl should remain on the staff after marriage." A city bank authority declared that " if you marry you go" had become now a settled policy with the Big Five, whatever other banks might do. The women's pensions scheme of the Westminster Bank had the same rule. A high official of Barclays said.; " I do not think many girls offered tha chance of marriage will hesitatu long over the question which to give up—marriage or a bank career. " Several of our girls, as it happens, have recently married men in the bank. '' In these days, when many social opportunities are offered to bank staffs, and young men and women are meeting in work and recreation, that is not altogether surprising. " Obviously it is not desirable that a husband and wife should both be working in the same bank. " For many other reasons it seems to us preferable that wives should be at home." Under the women's pensions scheme of Barclays Banks, a woman who remains with the bank is to be eligible for a pension at 55 provided she has completed £0 years' service. The amount will be one-sixtieth of her annual salary at the date of retirement multiplied by the number of years of service completed. The salaries paid to women are' also regulated and are range from £7O to £270 a year in London and from. £SO to £250 a year in the provinces.