DISCOVERY 



367 



to the Minister of Labour that the Board is unable 

 to fix general minimum time rates. 



It not infrequently happens that, cither formally or 

 informally, the " appointed members " have to put 

 for^vard suggestions for the consideration of the two 

 sides, with a view to bridging differences. By what 

 principle, it may be asked, are the " appointed mem- 

 bers " governed in making their suggestions with regard 

 to wages ? At the outset it should be stated that 

 the Trade Boards Acts appear to contain no instruc- 

 tions for the guidance of Boards, but the Corn Pro- 

 duction Act has a sub-section to the following effect : 

 " In fixing minimum rates . . . the Agricultural Wages 

 Board shall, so far as practicable, secure for able-bodied 

 men wages which, in the opinion of the Board, are 

 adequate to promote efficiency and to enable a man 

 in an ordinary case to maintain himself and his family 

 in accordance with such standard of comfort as may 

 be reasonable in relation to the matter of his occu- 

 pation." 



I cannot attempt to lay down the principles on 

 which a Trade Board should act in determining 

 minimum wages, but I venture to suggest that the 

 following considerations, among others, arc likely to 

 have weight with the " appointed members," if not 

 with a Board as a whole : 



1. The need for enabling a worker to maintain a 

 reasonable standard of life. Even in the case of a 

 minimum wage, something more than a mere sub- 

 sistence allowance, in the sense of what is necessary 

 to keep the body and soul of the worker together, 

 should be aimed at ; but it is hardly possible, when 

 dealing with a minimum wage, to accept the view of 

 the Dockers' Court of Inquiry which had reference to 

 standard wages. That Court held that dockers had 

 " a right to have life ordered upon a higher standard 

 [than merely a subsistence allowance], with full regard 

 to those comforts and decencies which are promotive 

 of better habits, which give a chance for the develop- 

 ment of a greater sense of self-respect, and which 

 betoken a higher regard for the place occupied by 

 these workers in the scheme of citizenship." What 

 exactly this standard amounts to, in terms of the 

 necessaries, comforts, and luxuries of life, was not 

 stated. Dr. Bowley, Professor of Statistics in the 

 University of London, estimated 73s. 6d. out of London, 

 and 77s. in London, as the expense of procuring a 

 decent standard of life for a family of a man, wife, 

 and three children. The Court, in JIarch 1920, recom- 

 mended i6s. a day, or 88s. a week. 



2. Variations in the cost of hving. This was recog- 

 nised already in connection with the wages assessment 

 made under the Statute of Apprentices. The Justices, 

 before setthng wages, were to call, unto them " such 

 ■discreet and grave persons of the . . . county or city 



as they should think~meet," and they were to confer 

 together " respecting the plenty or scarcity of the 

 time." Nowadays, members of Trade Boards consult 

 the latest number of the Labour Gazette to ascertain 

 the most recent figure for the percentage increase in 

 the cost of living since July 1914. 



3. What the best employers in the particular trade 

 are already paying. 



4. The existing rates of remuneration of occupations 

 of similar standing in other trades. 



5. What wages the particular trade will bear. This 

 consideration raises a variety of possibilities : 



(a) The possibility of the increased wages bill being 

 passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices. 



(b) The possibihty of less efficient workers being 

 dismissed. 



(c) The possibihty of smaller employers being elimi- 

 nated and displaced by larger employers. 



((/) The possibility of the industry being handicapped 

 in its struggle with foreign competitors. 



{e) The possibility of labour being displaced by 

 machineiy. 



(/) The possibility of higher wages rendering labour 

 more efficient so that a corresponding, or even more 

 than corresponding, increase in output is secured. 



(g) The possibility of the increased wages bill being 

 met entirely out of profits. 



(/i) The possibility of the higher wages acting as an 

 inducement to employers to reorganise their busi- 

 nesses, with a view to eliminating wasteful methods. 



6. Variations prevaihng in different parts of the 

 country, both in respect of cost of living and in respect 

 of what the trade will bear, more especially in the 

 case of those trades, such as the grocery business, 

 which are carried on in all types of area, from the 

 biggest town to the smallest country village. 



7. The grading of the workers within any particular 

 trade, if more than the lowest grade is to be given 

 protection. If the workers in a trade can be roughly 

 divided into two classes, skilled and unskilled, the 

 problem of the relation of the wages of the higher to 

 the lower grade is not very serious ; if, however, it is 

 necessary to distinguish several distinct grades, as 

 apparently in the grocery trade, then the work of 

 securing the proper proportions between the wages of 

 the different grades, without making the rate for the 

 lowest grade too low, or the rate- for the highest grade 

 too high, is a task of considerable diftkulty. 



8. In the case of rates for juveniles, care must be 

 taken not to fix wages in such a manner as to promote 

 wholesale dismissals when youths become adults. At 

 the same time, rates must not be fixed so high as to 

 deter employers from engaging juvenile labour, nor so 

 low as to deter juveniles from entering the trade. 



9. In the case of rates for women, an attempt has 



