ARBITRATION AWARD

Gisborne Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1415, 28 March 1905, Page 3

ARBITRATION AWARD

(To the Editor Gisborne Times.

Sir, —I notice in your report of Napier I Arbitration Awards the items : Drivers of 1 grocers’ carts, single men, £2, married 1 men, £2 2s, The increased amount is I small, but what about the principle of it ? 1 If a man is worth £2 2s and earns it, why 1 defraud him of two shillings because he is 1 not married ? If he is worth as much as I the married man why should his employer I pay him 2s per week less ? If on the other j hand a man is only worth £2 per week, j the extra two shillings which the employer I has to pay a man because he is married iB I two shillings per week of charitable aid I compulsorily paid by his employer. The principle is an excellent one if applied to | the.distribution of charitable aid, but not to the payment of wages. However, with j present tendencies'we may expect to see a graduated scale of wages, with single men on the lowest scale, married men a : little higher, men with families ' higher l still, and paid in proportion to the numl her of their children. This may he the l solution of tbs birth-rate Problem— T " l I etc, ' • - “ m > * Bacheiob. .