WAGES OF YOUTHS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22818, 27 August 1937, Page 13

WAGES OF YOUTHS

PAYMENT UNDER THE ACT BUSINESS MEN'S CRITICISM Injustices to youths caused by the provision of the Shops and Offices Act that they should have half-yearly increments of -Is each to their wages were pointed out at a meeting of the council of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce yesterday. A letter from the Hawera chamber stated that this provision made it impracticable for the employer to reward merit in excess of the statutory rate, and also deprived a large number of youths of employment, because the wages demanded by the statute were uneconomic. Mr. Gainor Jackson said the provision was throwing many youths into blind alley occupations. If they lost their work because the statutory increments were uneconomic, they were generally unable to find employment for which their experience fitted them. It was decided to reply to the Hawera chamber that the matter was already covered in a remit to be sent from Auckland to the annual conference of the Associated Chambers of Commerce. The remit was that the conference should draw attention to the serious problem of unemployment among youths of 18 and upward, and urge a modification of the present rigid stautory provisions.