STANDARD WAGES

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 188, 26 August 1937, Page 9

STANDARD WAGES

Press Association.

Margin of Payment for a Skilled Man PROF. TOCKER'S VIEWS

By Telegraph—

AUCKLAND, Last Night. ' Ihe ATbitration Court contiuued its tearing of Ihe case to determine tho Btandard wages for uasMlled, scmipVilled aad skilled labour. Tho evijdenee for the workers was completed in jthe af ternoon and ihe evidence for lemployers was opened by Professor A. jH. Tocker, who for an kour and a-half feubmitted a statement reviewing the jeconomic conditions in tke Dominion jsinee 1924. Mr. Justice O'Regan pre(aided. . A boilermaker of 42 yeaTs' experxtnce, Mr. P. E. Warner, seeretary of tke Wellington Trades Council, subxnitted tables skowing tke xates for apprentiee caxpentcxs and joiners, plasterexs, bricklayers, painters and plurnbers. Tko figures skowcd a wide difference in tke rates of eack trade or ealling in different districts. In tke nortkern industrial district, according to tke iiguxes submitted, an apprentiee caxpenter earned £572 in five years as jligainst £364 in Wellington, a difference Sof £208 in f avour of tke nortkern ap- ; jpr'entiee. In six years a plumbing ap-; jprentice earned £557 14s in tke nortkern ; Idistrict and £155 in Wellington. A; ibricMayer apprentiee xeceived £377 in| *11 districts and a piasterer apprentiee! Varied from £520 to £390. Mr, Warner submitted furtker tables of industries elosely assoeiated witk the! jprimary industries or xepresenting public utilities earried on under monopoly; conditions. Tke pereentage of earnings sto capital was skown to vary very con■iderably in different groups, tke aver-' *ge fpr four groups being 8.3 per cent. Oue group earned from 7.68 to 12.36 por; cent., anotker under monopoly conditions from 0.58 to 1.13 per eent., athird from 0.34 to 11.48 per eent. and a! ,f ourtk from 11.05 t0 18.37 per eent. Tke fourtk group was ky far tke largest. iemployer of labour. Witness estimated that tke average earnings for males, were.between £3 10s 6d* and £4 11s* 6dl weekly and for females between £1 11s 4d and £1 19s 6d. In 1929 tke major portion of 54,651 wage-earners were - grouped between 8os and 110s, wkcreas in 1936 tke major portion of tke 57,637 srage-earaers were grouped between 75s »nd 110s. A montkly grapk skowed a pkenpmenal increase in female laoour during 1934-35 witk steady employment over tke year, whereas males *kowed a decided fall to • July and a gradual increase to November. Mr. Cornwell contended tkat tke margin of payment for skill skould be at least two-fifths above tkat paid for unskilled work because an apprentieeskip ©f five yeaTs or mdre was needed, a; cmall wage was paid during apprentiee- ' and because a man must attend elasses, because of tke extra knowledge *nd skill and tke expense "of .tools ke arequired, and tke keavy responsibility ihe kad to bear. Evidence in support of tkis contenjtion was given by Mr W. B. Camerou, snechanical engineer. Speaking about japprentices, witness said 90 per cent of itke engineering apprentices in New Zrland wero inadequately trained large\ ;on account of the out-of-date» plant in tuse. -"I can take you to a skop in 'Auckland wkere tkey are using a latlie " iSO years old," said witness. "It skould jhave been scrapped 20 years ago." ; His Honour; Thcse aro tke men wko jgometimes complain about overseas coni4 ipetition. Tkis completed tke evidenc© for tke jemployees. Professor Tocker's Evidence . Evidence for the employers was given jby Professor A. H. Tocker, dean of tko Ifaculty of economics at tne Canterbury iUniversity College. In submitting a xefview of tke general eeonomie conditions |*f New Zealand to assist tke Court in jdetermining appropriate wage rates, I Professor Tocker said his evidence was jmueh tke samo as tkat whieh he subImitted in the basie wage case of nearly j* year ago, but at kad Been brougHt up |to date. Tke figures demonstrated conIvincingly tkat tke ckanges Between prosperity and deprcssion iu New Zeajland were causcd mainly by ckange in 'tke ainount of income recelved from •abroad, said Professor Tocker. Tke figures left no room for doubt tkat tke !ckief cause of tke depression in New Zealand was tke fall of income from abroad whiek occurred about a year in iftdvance of otker iniernal changes. Tke first and most important eause of •unemployment was tke faet tkat tke income of tke community, of wkicli *,bout 60 per cent was normally spent K>n and consisted of wage payments, fell jinnck more heavily tkan tke average wage rates. Professor Tocker reviewed itke "new, and unortkodox" mothods iapplied by the Government to meet the situation as a result of which disparity Ibetween costs and prices was le8sened Ibut not overcome. Estimating the 1 nneasnre of recovery from 1933 to 1937, ke said the improvement recorded had been substantial but tke value of proiduction for home use still lagged be;kind tke exports and was likely to inicrease. "Witness estimated that in tke kiear futuro tke average moncy income iavailable per kead of tke population • jwould be slightly less than in 1928-29. |Compared witk 1929, tke export prices jwere now lower by about 10 per cent, Jwages were slightly higker, retail prices twere 9 per cent lower, and the purchas|ing power of wages was nearly 11 per icent grcater. Tke eeonomic balance Jw tke essence of tlie problem and ko Iknew of no casy foriaula by wkich it jmigkt be secured.