Woman's "Fatal" Age—Twenty-One!

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23121, 20 August 1938, Page 6 (Supplement)

Woman's "Fatal" Age—Twenty-One!

EFFECT' OF NEW CLERICAL AWARD ON FEMALE WORKERS

By UNA AULD

TVHE new. Clerical 'Award is important to women because its repercussions affect thousands of female as well ns male workers. The favourable repercussions are obvious, the unfavouiablc perhaps equally so. As far as senior workers are concerned, the' most glaring anomaly is, I. suppose, the provision for ti wage £3 5s a week to be paid to a girl of 21 „• simply because she has reached that age, and not because of her ability. That is to' say, provided she has attained her majority, and irrespective of the fact that she may be starting right st the very bottom of the commercial ladder, she receives a wage equal to ■that paid to a woman who may have spent 10, 15 or even more years at hexjob, acquiring a knowledge and specialised qualifications of exceptional value to lier employer; yet, who for all that has to stand back and watch, not only a partlv-trained but perhaps-a totallySncxperienced girl receive the same reward as herself. It would take an archangel completely uninterested in things material'to bear such an anomaly with .equanimitV—-and very few of us, I fear, could creep into the angel class alone — let alone the arch-angel! _ . . . So there it is—an obvious injustice bound to engender a smouldering if not a fiercely-burning resentment. Iso doubt, of course, the provision serves a useful purpose in the a*\vard by propel tiding the possibility of "undercut wages. \ But does this, balance the anomaly of equal pay for experience versus inexperience? And won't it shut'out from office work many a girl who perhaps has tried some other form of employment but found it unsuitable or uncongenial. and who turns to office work as an alternative method of earning a living ? Why Not Graded Salaries? Take the case of a girl who, leaving school, say, at the age of 16 or 17, foeusses her thoughts on nursing, but has to wait to enter the profession until 6he reaclies the ago of admission. She gives the work a fair trial for a year or so. but finds that physically or psychologically the strain is too much for her. Forced to turn elsewhere for employment, she takes up typewriting and shorthand, and perhaps book-keeping. By this time she is either very near or over the "fatal age"—not forty, as in pre-unionistic days, but twenty-one, in accordance with the dictates of the new award! What employer, knowing her age and the effect it will have upon his pay-roll, is going to think once, let alone twice," about putting her on his staff? For £3 5s a week the average employer of female labour expects good hard value for his money, and plenty of it, and what inexperienced girl of 21 is going to give it to him? Even if a girl starts work at the age of 15 or 16, it is only in rare cases where she has more than average ability, that she is worth a wage of £3 5s a week at the age of 21. Anyone who has held a responsible position in a commercial concern knows the truth of that. But, the argument begins, a girl who 5s boarding, needs a living wage regard-

less of whether she is 21 or not. True, of course; but surely the difficulty could be surmounted by stipulating that girls of 21 should receive a weekly wage of approximately £2 10s or £2 15s a week, gradually increasing until the scale reaclies a wage of £3 5s a week at the age, of, sav, 25—an ago, incidentally, at which a girl is much more likely to bo worth tho money to her employer, and at which she has. moreover, learned the value of cash from her own point of view. An alternative is the suggestion of a system of apprenticeships or cadetships under which salaries could be scaled according to length of service and stages of examinations passed, as proposed by Mr. T. Conly, of the Dunedin Vocational Guidance Association. This would certainly bo more equitable than the fixed flat wage, which does not take the nature of duties into account, and under which a competent worker frequently has to bear the burden of others doing less responsible work. As Mr. Conly points out, grading is done in many trades and professions where certified workers receive higher wages, thus receiving an incentive to study which is entirely absent from the present system. Shorthand-typistcs employed in Government offices, for instance, work under a form of grading, as tho passing of junior, intermediate

and special shorthand and typewriting examinations means increased pay. In large commercial offices, there should be no difficulty about grading girls into routine workers, typistes, shorthand-typistcs, typistc-hook-keep-ers, etc., scaling wages accordingly. In smaller offices, where a girl receives the benefit of an all-round training, serving ns a jumping-off plank for better jobs, conditions could be modified to suit tho circumstances, so as to recompense the employee fairly for her work, and at the same time put no undue wage pressure on a small business which could not stand too much financial strain. As a, worker. I am all in favour of the highest possible wages being paid, especially to women, who too frequently do a man's work for half or three-quar-ters of a man's pay. Employers in the past have too often not given an adequate return for services rendered. Even now, they too often want as much as they can get for as little as they can give. That, after all, is plain human nature —just as it is human nature for a worker to think primarily of her pay envelope and not of the employer's monetary capacity. But them must he give-and-take in both points of view; idealism as well as materialism. Surely both sides can strive for such a viewpoint. Without it, mankind can never evolve very far.