MEN'S AND WOMEN'S WAGES

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 39, 9 November 1937, Page 14

MEN'S AND WOMEN'S WAGES

REASON FOR DISCREPANCY

are the wages - and salaries paid to women alinost invariably lower than those received by men for identic?d work? _ To say that women are invading the industrial and business fields is to utter a platitude. A slow process that goes on round us every day in an ordinary way is not spectacular enough to force itself on our consciousness. That a xevolution steals on us unawares does not alter its revolutionary nature; not aH revolution, even in politics, are cataclysmic. It is impossible to forecast the effect on the social and economic life of the community of tihe modern movement of women out of the home. * One aspect engaging immediate attention* is that there is a tremendous difference in what is earned by women as compartd to the earnings of men. Only recently the basic wage was increased, so that we notice this afrpsh. The standard award for the Metropolitan area and Newcastle for men is £3 15s to £3 18s and for women £2 2s to £2. 6s. Professor Bland, Professor of Puhlic Admimstration at Sydney University, says this is due to the fact that men are alwayS.paid more because of the responsibilities they are assumed to have. This idea, he says, is being broken down, although wages are still fixed on the old basis. The day will come, he believes, when we will have pay on the basis of productivity, irrespective of domestic needs. s According to John Gunther, women in Russia do not take part in social activities unless they hold same position entitling them to recognition. To be married to an important man does not carry any weight. Dr. R. B. Madgwick, Iecturer in Economics at Sydney University, points out that there are relatively few positions open to women, and the great number of women applying for jobs must depress their wages. The reason for this, he says, is largely traditional. Although women are re- ■ ceiving better education than ever before and are thus encouraged to enter Industry, they are still not as welleducated as men.

Women Like to Choose. Speaking from an extensive experience of placing young men and women in work,- Mr. P. C. Greenland, of the University Appointments Board, mentions among factors making for lower wages in addition to the custom of emplpyers offering less — the prefererice of women for congenial and pleasant work. Men, on the other hand, have to consider rather what they shall earn than how they shall earn it. Women frequently come to Mr. Greenland desiring work in which they are interest ed, money being not so vital. Mr. Greenland is also inclined to think tbat women lack aggressiveness and are not prepared to ask more than is offered them. Miss Helen Terrett, principal of the Macquarie Secretarial School, says that the reasons for men's higher pay are: Ihe custom that men should . be paid more, based on the idea that the cost of living for a man is about twice that of a Woman; the age-old assumption that the ideai career for women is home-life. In Miss Terrett's opinion women should •arn as much as men for equal work. I ]X ■* , Women on Faruis. r "Riere .are many other considerations, Can we talk in terms of complete inter:haneeability of mai a.nd womrt in

business, Industry and other employments? We in New Zealand tend to forget that in India and elsewhere this means seeing women in the fields working like men with a hoe or other implements. Egypt, and even Italy, show the same thing. English-speaking people are not prepared for that, and would resent such practical application of what some people demand. Certain work on the other hand is almost exclusive to women. Nurses, teachers and typists are engaged in work that is apparently eminently suitable for them. From the employer's point of view it may be asked whether girls and women can do office or industrial' work as well as men. - - In offices 'girls can do routine as well and should have equal pay. But when the inquiry is carried further, certain facts become important. For instance, more than 60 per cent. of girls leave their jobs before 30 to get married. Thus an employer has to consider constant dislocation. from re-organisation after girls leave. Statistics show tliat girls take twice as much sick leave as men. More girls have, therefore, to be employed for the same work. In England the ratio of men's efficiency or productivity to that of women's is 2 to .l, according to the Royal Commission on Industrial Fatigue. Another aspect of the discussion is whether jn the event of equal pay being granted there would, be a levelling down to women's wages for men or a levelling up to men's standard. In Ireland in the last five years men's salaries have fallen to women's standard.