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Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 145045, 22 July 1916, Page 2

It is well known that women generally receive lower wages than men even when they perform work of a §imilar nature, and to many persons this seems a very unjust arrangement. It is sometimes defended on the ground that women can live more cheaply than men, in other words that they have a lower standard of living. This, however, does not scorn a very satisfactory reason and. as a matter of fact, it does not really explain the position. lu the case of boys, parents realise that, if UiP3‘ aro to secure good positions they must he properly trained for them, and therefore boys are apprenticed to trades or prepared for professions, receiving comparatively small pay, or no pay at all, in the hope of receiving higher remuneration later on in life. 1 ill comparatively recently this course was rarely adopted with regard to girls; they wore expected to marry, arid therefore it was not considered worth whilo training them for a business or profession, which they would probably abandon almost as soon as their training was completed. 'Dins girls crowded into occupations which required little skill and, as there wore comparatively few occupations open to women, the over-supply of labour tended to bring wages down. Whore there arc throe applicants for two positions the wages are certain to be lower than whore there are two applicants for three positions. The fact is that women’s wages are lower than those of men because there is an oversupply of women in certain occupations. It is not because tho workers are women, hut because too many of them want the same job. Madame Melba is not [raid loss than a male opera singer because she is a woman; she can command her own price. Similarly a capable domestic servant can secure ‘2os to 25s a week and board because there is an unsatisfied demand for such persons. Yet a girl clerk has to be satisfied with 15s or 20s a week, because there are many girls willing to undertake such work rather than domestic service, because it is considered higher in tho social scale. Women crowd into occupations which arc regarded ns desirable from a social point of view, and thus bring down wages. Many girls who live at home and really need not work for a living also accept small salaries, which they regard as pocket-money, and thus spoil the market for tho real worker. Women's wages can only bo raised by women becoming better trained for their work and launching out into occupations which arc not already overcrowded, thus relieving the pressure in those that are over full and raising the level of the wages paid.