■i-'^O AUSTRALIAN WAGE PROPOSALS. 



In the General Election in October, 1919, the alleged insuffi- 

 ciency of the wage was brought to the notice of the Federal 

 (xovernment, who undei-took to find means to adjust the minimum 

 wage automatically to the cost of living, in order that a wage 

 should be paid such as would enable a man to marry and bring 

 up children in a decent, wholesome condition. This Commission, 

 entitled " The Basic Wage Commission," was appointed in 

 December, 1919, and consisted of seven members, three nomin- 

 ated by employer organisations and three by employee organisa- 

 tions, with Mr. A. B. Piddington, K.C., as chairman. This 

 Commission took exhaustive evidence on the necessary standard 

 of living required by the worker in accordance with the Australian 

 civilised minimum standard, and also on the cost of providing this 

 necessary minimum. The finding deals, for example, with the 

 rents of houses, with the amount of clothing required, with the 

 cost of food, and with variovis miscellaneous items, including 

 union dues, medicine, domestic assistance, recreation, amuse- 

 ments and library. 



To a reader not accustomed to the high Austrahan standard 

 of living the different items seem certainly calculated on a some- 

 what generous scale. For example, the house is to be a five- 

 roomed house in sound tenantable condition, not cramped as to 

 allotment, situated in decent surrovmdings and provided with 

 bath, copper and tubs. In Melbourne the rent of such a house 

 was £1 Os. 6d. a week. 



The Commission even went into such details as the amoupt 

 and quality of clothes required by the wife. She was, for 

 instance, to be provided with two best hats to last for two j^ears, 

 and another to last one year, a winter and summer costume, 

 both to last three years, a silk blouse to last two years, six hand- 

 kerchiefs a year, one pair silk and one pair cotton gloves a year. 

 Of all these ilfems the cost in November, 1920, was estimated at 

 10s. 9d. per week. 



As a result of these elaborate investigations, the Commission 

 decided that £5 16s. a week was the necessary basic wage for 

 providing a minimum standard of civilised comfort. This, it 

 should be noted, is not a recommendation that such a wage 

 should be paid. It was merely a statement of two facts : (1)' 

 that to attain a minimum standard of comfort, certain com- 

 modities must be provided, and (2) that the cost of these 

 commodities was, in November, 1920, for a family of five persons 

 £5 16s. a week. Nevertheless, the finding, indicating, as it did, a 

 very marked increase on the minimum wage (which industries were 

 already finding it difficult to pay), resulted in widespread disinay. 

 It would have been extremely difficult for the employers' 

 organisations who were represented on the finding to assert that 

 a standard of comfort lower than that taken should be estab- 

 lished, and it could not be denied that this standard could not 

 be attained except on the expenditure stated. 



On the presentation of the report, the Prime Minister 

 obtained from the Commonwealth Statistician, Mr. G. H. Knibbs, 

 C.M.G., a memorandum on the feasibility of paying such a wage, 

 and the Statistician asserted, without any hesitation, that the 



