PRICES & WAGES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 December 1943, Page 4

PRICES & WAGES

STABILISATION IN CANADA. OTTAWA, December 11. A wage order just issued by the Minister of Labour, the Hon. Humphrey Mitchell, opens a new phase in the battle against inflation. It is a battle in which the maintenance of the price ceiling holds the first line. In two years of price ceiling the cost of living has risen little more than 3 per cent. In the corresponding period of the last war, when there was no price ceiling, the cost of living rose 33 per cent. When the price ceiling was established wages were stabilised but not frozen. National and Regional War Labour Boards were given power to adjust wages found to be low by comparison with wages paid for similar work in the same or in a comparable locality. Under these provisions the War Labpur Boards dealt with 40,000 applications for wage adjustments affecting 2,500,000 workers. The result of the / adjustments meant a total increase in I payment to Canadian wage earners of over 150,000,000 dollars. The new order tightens the control over wages. At the same time it incorporates in the wage rates the existing cost of living bonus. No additional cost of living rises over 3 per cent and remains at that level for two consecutive months, the Dominion Government will review the whole programme of price and wage control and take appropriate action. The new order differs from the old wages order which it supersedes in that it bases future upward wage adjustments simply on the rectification of “gross inequality or gross injustice,” coupled with ability of the employer to pay the increase without raising prices.. Similar provisions are made regarding wage decreases. The paramount principles will be the maintenance of price stability. An enlarged board will include two representatives of the general public.