SEX AND WAGES.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 September 1919, Page 4

SEX AND WAGES.

(By W. A. Appleton, Secretary, General Federation of Trade Unions.)

Men and women write loosely of human equality. Too otteu they are confused between equality ot right and equality of capacity. There is little contention over the claim to equality of right, but very few attempt to argue equality of capacity. The differences that exist are numerous and obvious, and any safe attempts to equalise must involve the severest and the highest form of education, and these attempts will occupy centuries. Any levelling of capacities by hasty or ill-considered action will immediately and disastrously reduce the standard and the quality of production both in things material and in things intellectual.

The imposition oi equality by Act of Parliament is inconceivable. It is impossible to escape the conclusion that while men and women may, and should, be equal in the sight of God and the law, they are not generally equal in intellectuality, personal activity, in physique, or in that indefinable “ knack ” that enables some to accomplish so much more than others.

No one quarrels with the formula, “ equal pay for equal work.” The only trouble which arises is that which follows the attempt to estimate the value of the work performed by different individuals. Those who work with the greatest intensity and exhaust themselves before, or soon after, they reach the average mortality age, are perhaps the most valuable members of the State, and because of the intensive character of their work they would be entitled to higher wages, though apparently performing the same job. Where work can be standardised and production adequately measured there should be no difficulty about providing equal pay irrespec • tive of sex, but in the other cases it seems both foolish and impossible to draw hard and fast lines. In the interests of the community it may be held as a general rule that men and women should be paid, not according to the time they labour, but according to the effort made and the value of die work performed.