RELATIONSHIP IN WAGES RATES

Wanganui Chronicle, 8 June 1948, Page 4

RELATIONSHIP IN WAGES RATES

“W E do not ask that the professional classes be elevated -.bove all, but that reasonable remuneration be paid to all, having proper respect to the part each plays in our national economy,” said Mr. S. J. Sullivan at the monthly meeting of the Wanganui Employers’ Association.

This point pf view is sound. It is, however, not to be re- ' garded as the viewpoint of the employer alone. It is one which should receive the support of the unskilled man. for m the long run it is to his advantage that such a relationship should exist. On the short view if the unskilled man can, by combination, send up his own remuneration to a level beyond that which the skilled man receives then all is well for the unskilled man and the skilled may be left to look after himself or to accept the conditions as he finds them. But in this, as in many other matters, the short view is deceptive of reality. All remuneration conies out of the pnee of the product and if the price is high then the demand will sooner or later be contracted. Every employee has a nersonal in terest in keeping down the price of the product to which his labour contributes its share. A restricted market means, in the end, unemployment. But the unskilled man is the assistant of the skilled worker, be the latter a draughtsman, a quantity surveyor or a factory foreman. If the skilled man becomes discouraged then the drive goes out of the industry and verv soon spine other product comes in to take the place of the product of the industry so discouraged. If skilled workers generally do not receive adequate reward for the exercise of that skill they will soon cease to acquire it and then there will be more unskilled workers seeking fewer jobs. 6