BASIC WAGE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19582, 11 September 1925, Page 10

BASIC WAGE.

INCREASE IN NEW SOUTH WARES. (Eeom Our Own Correspondent.) SYDENY, September 3, Tho fixing of the new basic wage at £4 4s per week for adult males iri New South Wales and at £2 2s 6d for adult females has not been joyously acclaimed either at tho Trades Hall or among the big body of employers. The amounts represent an increase only of 2s per week for males and Is for females, and while, with characteristic human weakness, the workers would like a little more, the employers view tho increase with some little disquiet in face of the added burden which has shortly to bo shouldered under tho proposed 44 hour legislation. That burden they will probably pass on to tho public. But that is their attitude. The cost of building will advance with the shorter hours and increased wages, and there will be a disposition to raise rents, although there is now a distinct leaning on the part of the Fair Kents Court to bring rents down, frequently to such an extent as to leave landlegislation. That burden they will probably resolve itself into the old story of the dog chasing its tail, or what is more commonly called the vicious circle. The 44 Hours Bill will bo one of the first measures brought down by the Government. The opposition in Parliament to tho shorter hours, as revealed by the Address-in-Roply debate, appears to be largely on tho ground that it will place manufacturers and the State generally at a disadvantage economically. in competition with other States — notably Victoria—which work the longer hours. If the short hours are Australianwide in their application, tho opposition to the proposal will lose not a little of its force. The Government, however, has made it one of its vital planks, and will not be thwarted by the opposition to it. The fact that one of the very few independents in the House has pronounced himself typically Labour in his sympathies has strengthened the Government's position.