COST OF LIVING

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 23 July 1929, Page 10

COST OF LIVING

WORKER'S FAMILY £.-. 13s 11 id a WEEK INCREASED WAGES ASKED At the Arbitration Court Mr J. Roberts, wlil'u stilling the ease for the Federation of Waterside Workers, who asked for a new Dominion award involving increases in wages, pointed out that on the last, occasion when the dispute was before the Court ho presented cost-of-living ligures dealing with house rents and the commodities required to maintain a man, his wife, and two children, and the prices of the commodities (states "The Post"). licforo estimating the commodity requirements of a family per week, tho Watcrsiders' Federation m 1923-24 obtained family budgets not only from waterside workers but from workers engaged in. other industries. In thatiyear also ' they obtained a. considerable amount of data in regard to house rentals, and they found that for the worst. typo of house of three or four rooms Uie rentals were from £1 3s to £1 7s 6d. Taking the four main centres, he believed the rentals would be higher than the latter figure. He was of opinion that if a worker could obtain a four or five-roomed house lit for habitation in Wellington at the present time, for a weekly rental of £1 12s 3d, he would think he was getting a bargain. BASIC WAGE . ' In 1914, said Mr Roberts, the Labour Department in its annual report published a diagram allocating the expenditure of the worker's wa'ges into the different groups, as follows: —Food, 34.13 per cent.; clothing, 13.89; fuel and liglit, 5.22; rent, 20.31; other items, : 26.45; total, 100.00. I "As far as 1 know the Court of Arbitration, to some extent at least, assesses the basic wage by this method up to the present time. On that basis the proportion allowed for each group would be as follows:—Food and fuel, £1 lis 4Jd per week; clothing, lis 4Ad; miscellaneous, £1 Is 9J,d; rent, 16s l£d; total, £4 0s 8d per week. "With further reference to house rentals, it will be seen from the foregoing that house rent is put down at 16s 1-jd; that is 20 per cent, of £4 0s Bd. Everyone knows that it is impossible for any worker in any of the ports in New Zealand .to obtain a house for that rental. We have obtained returns tliis year also, and these indicate that for a four or five-roomed house in any of the main centres throughout New Zealand at least £1 7s 6d to £1 15s is paid. "However, in the schedule of costs, we allow only £1 5s per week for house rent, and may I say that in the cost of commodities generally we have underestimated rather than overestimated the quantity and prices of the commodities required by a family. WEEKLY EXPENDITURE He arrived at tho following weekly expenditure:—Rent, £1 ss; food, £1 17s LUd; clothing, £1 Is 7d.; miscellaneous, £1 Is 9d; liglit and fuel, 7s Bdj total, £5 13s Hid. . "It would be an easy matter, and indeed very justifiable, to add to the foregoing considerably. Take the amount the worker should save annually —-put it down at 4s per week-, or £lO 8s per year; This is a- very small amount to meet the requirements during periods of unemployment, sickness, or accident, or during'old age. Then there is the further question of a higher education for the worker's children, to which, 1 claim, they are entitled. This would cost at least an extra 2s per week, and, if we add that amount to the foregoing, it will be found that the wage necessary 'to maintain a workingclass family in a reasonable standard of living is ±!5 19s LUd. "It must he understood also that under the foregoing scale there are no holidays for the worker. He must work 52 weeks in every year to obtain the standard of living I bave indicated. There are no expenses allowed for a holiday, and 1 think the Court will agree that a worker i s entitled to some respite from hard daily toil. "May I say that I have compared these fists with retail prices for the last seven years, and I find that instead of prices being reduced they are slightly on the up grade. Four years ago the cost of these commodities' Would be £5 17s 2d. This indicates that the prices of commodities are not being reduced, but over all slightly increased. "Reliable information has been supplied to me that the original basis for our standard of living figures in NewZealand was taken from 69 families in 1914.- At that time there were 172,000 families in New Zealand; therefore, the 69 families only represent .04 of the total number of families in the Dominion. "Can the Court," askeel Mr Roberts, "rely to-day on the data obtained from 69 families in . New Zealand which was supplied fifteen years ago J I submit' it cannot, and f.onie more eommonsense method must be adopted in assessing tiie basic wage of the workers of this country."