COST OF LIVING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 April 1942, Page 3

COST OF LIVING

GOVERNMENT DECISION INCREASE TO LOWER-PAID STATE EMPLOYEES. STATEMENT BY PRIME MINISTER. (Bv Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Following the increase in wages recently awarded by the Arbitration Court, the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, announced last evening that the Government had decided to grant an additional cost-of-living allowance to the lower-paid State employees. The additional allowance will be payable to the same classes of employees as the present cost-of-living allowance, and will apply from approximately the same date as the Arbitration Court’s order depending on the varying pay arrangements in the different State services. “As in the case of the present cost-of-living allowance, the additional allowance will be at the rate of 5s a week for employees 18 years of age or over who are paid on a weekly basis and £l3 for those paid on an annual basis, up to £765 a year,” said Mr Fraser. “An equivalent allowance is payable to those paid on an hourly basis. Juniors under 18 years of age living away from home will receive the additional allowance at the rate of £6 10s a year, and if living at home at the rate of £3 5s a year.” “The additional allowance,” Mr Fraser explained, “is on exactly the same basis as the existing cost-of-living allowance with the exception that the full allowance will be paid up to a maximum of £765, whereas the existing cost-of-living allowance abates when the salary or wages exceed £335 per annum.”