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a trade in which the majority of employees are women, similar differences were found, as is shown in the following table:

PER CENT OF WORKERS RECEIVING MORE THAN THE MINIMUM AWARD RATES.

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The report of the New Zealand department for 1910 makes similar comparisons of actual rates paid and minimum rates under awards. Upon its figures for the year 1910 the report contains the following comment:1

Again this year I append a table of an investigation, as far as factories are concerned, showing rates paid to workers as compared with the minimum wage under awards, etc. For this purpose the wages of 7,374 workers have been compared. Of this number, 2,785 received the minimum wage, and 4,589 in excess of it, or a total of 62 per cent. In making this comparison only the wages of persons over the age of 21 are taken; and on reference to the return it will show how each industry governed by an award is dealt with. Unfortunately, owing to the difficulty of making comparisons, some of our principal industries have not been dealt with, as the awards provide for two or three rates to be paid to certain classes of employees, and the schedules received from employers do not always separate the workmen into the various classes. However, there is sufficient evidence to show that in our manufacturing industries at least an average of 50 per cent of the workers compared received more than the rates granted in the awards of the court of arbitration. Such a result must be exceedingly gratifying to those interested in the industrial legislation of the Dominion, especially in view of the fact that opponents of the act have stated in and out of season that the majority of workers are receiving only the minimum wage, and that the work accomplished by the first-class man gets no more recognition than that of the ordinary employee who makes no special effort to deserve extra monetary reward. If this allegation is true in regard to workers outside manufacturing industries which I very much doubt the figures quoted by the department in this report hardly bear out the contention in regard to many of our leading manufacturing industries. I find in regard to the cities the returns show that in Auckland, out of 2,119 employees compared, 782 receive the minimum rate and 1,337 in excess, equal to 63 per cent. In Wellington 1,513 employees have been compared, 535 of whom receive the minimum rate and 978 in excess of the minimum, or 64 per cent. In Christchurch 2,367 have been compared, 869 of whom receive the minimum

1 Nineteenth Annual Report of the New Zealand Department of Labour, 1910. Wellington, 1910, pp. xi, xii.

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rate and 1,498 in excess of minimum, or 63 per cent. 1,375 employees have been compared, of whom 599 receive the minimum and 776 in excess of the minimum, or 561⁄2 per cent.

WORK OF CONCILIATION COUNCILS AND ARBITRATION COURT. The work of the conciliation councils and arbitration court during the year ended March 31, 1914, may be summarized as follows:1

Industrial agreements..

Recommendations of councils of conciliation..

Awards of the arbitration court..

Applications for awards refused..

Enforcements of awards (conducted by department) in arbitration
court..

Interpretation of awards.

Other decisions (amending awards, adding parties, etc.).
Appeals from decisions of stipendiary magistrates in enforcement

cases.

Appeal from registrar's decision to refuse registration of union....
Magistrate's courts:

Enforcements of awards, etc. (conducted by department)...
Enforcements of awards (conducted by unions)....
Enforcements of act. . . .

Permits to underrate workers granted by inspectors of factories and
secretaries of unions....

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Of 433 cases for breaches of awards in which the proceedings were taken by the labor department, 401 were decided in favor of the department and 32 were dismissed. In four cases conducted by unions, one conviction was recorded, and three cases were dismissed.

COST OF ADMINISTRATION.

The cost of administration of the act by the arbitration court and councils of conciliation during the year 1912-13 was £8,171 19s. 6d. ($39,768.91), made up as follows:2

£

8. d.

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The cost of administration for the year 1913-14 was £415 16s. 8d. ($2,023.65) less than in the preceding year, the differences being chiefly in traveling expenses.1

1 Twenty-third Annual Report of the New Zealand Department of Labour, 1914, pp. 18 and 19.

2 New Zealand Official Year Book, 1913. Wellington, 1913, p. 674.

GREAT BRITAIN.1

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS OF TRADE BOARDS ACT.

Minimum-wage legislation in Great Britain was initiated by the trade boards act which came into operation January 1, 1910. The original act provided for the establishment of trade boards authorized to fix minimum rates of wages in four trades, selected as being especially subject to sweating. These trades were the following:

1. Ready-made and wholesale bespoke tailoring, employing upward of 200,000 persons, about one-third of whom were men. 2. Paper-box making, employing about 25,000 persons. 3. Machine-made lace and net finishing, and mending or darning operations of lace curtain finishing, employing about 10,000 persons. 4. Certain kinds of chain making, employing some 3,000 persons, two-thirds of whom were women.

By the trade boards provisional orders confirmation act enacted August 15, 1913, four additional trades were brought within the scope of the act. These were:

1. Sugar confectionery and food preserving, employing about 80,000 persons.

2. Shirt making, employing approximately 40,000 persons.

3. Hollow ware, employing about 15,000 persons.

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4. Linen and cotton embroidery, employing about 3,000 persons. In 1913, and again in 1914, the Board of Trade took steps to secure the extension of the act, by Parliament, to power laundries. On both occasions, however, Parliament declined to grant the necessary authorization because of defects in the bill presented or lack of the information desired preliminary to definite action in the case.

The act provides that the Board of Trade may make a provisional order applying the act to any other trade if they are satisfied that the rate of wages prevailing in any branch of that trade is "exceptionally low" as compared with that in other employments, and that the other circumstances of the trade are such as to render the application of the act to the trade expedient.

No provisional order extending the act to any additional trade has effect unless and until it is confirmed by Parliament.

The principal function of trade boards is to fix minimum rates of wages; that is to say, rates of wages which in the opinion of the trade board are the lowest which ought to be paid to workers in the trade and district for which the rates are fixed.

Every trade board consists of equal numbers of members representing employers and members representing workers in the trade, to

1 This section is based largely upon an official report entitled "Memoranda in reference to the working of the trade boards act" presented to Parliament by the Board of Trade, May 27, 1913. London, 1913, H. C. 134.

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gether with a smaller number of "appointed members," who are persons unconnected with the trade and appointed by the Board of Trade. The membership of the trade boards in existence in June, 1913, is shown in the following statement, which also indicates the cases in which members were elected and those in which members were nominated by the Board of Trade:

MEMBERSHIP OF TRADE BOARDS, JUNE, 1913.

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Nine district trade committees, covering the whole country, have been established by the paper-box trade board (Great Britain) and seven district trade committees, covering the whole country, have been established by the tailoring trade board (Great Britain). No minimum rate of wages can have effect in an area for which a district trade committee has been established, unless the committee has recommended it or has had an opportunity of reporting to the trade board. The district trade committees consist partly of appointed members, partly of representative members of the trade board, and partly of representatives of local employers and local workers. The local representatives have in all cases been nominated by the Board of Trade. The membership of the 16 district trade committees mentioned above is shown in the two following tables:

MEMBERSHIP OF PAPER-BOX DISTRICT TRADE COMMITTEES (EXCLUSIVE OF APPOINTED MEMBERS), JUNE, 1913.

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1 The districts are here named, for the sake of brevity, after the principal centers of the trade in the several areas. The districts covered by the committees are set out in full in the regulations for the paper-box trade board (Great Britain).

MEMBERSHIP OF TAILORING DISTRICT TRADE COMMITTEES (EXCLUSIVE OF ap. POINTED MEMBERS), JUNE, 1913.

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1 The districts are here named, for the sake of brevity, after the principal centers of the trade in the several areas. The districts covered by the committees are set out in full in the regulations for the tailoring trade board (Great Britain).

2 Including 1 additional member nominated by the Board of Trade.

ORGANIZATION AND WORK OF TRADE BOARDS.

The act requires the trade boards to fix minimum time rates of wages for their trades. It also gives them power to fix general minimum piece rates. These rates, whether by time or piece, may be fixed so as to apply to the whole trade or to any special process or to any special class of workers or to any special area.

Before fixing any minimum rate of wages a trade board must give notice of the rate which they propose to fix, and must consider any objections that may be put before them within three months; and when the rate has been fixed notice of it must be given by the trade board for the information of the employers and workers affected. Any rate so fixed immediately has a limited operation, as follows: (a) An employer must pay wages at not less than the minimum rate, unless there is a written agreement under which the worker agrees to accept less. If there is no such written agreement, wages at the minimum rate can be recovered from the employer as a debt (but the employer will not be liable to a fine). (b) Any employer may give notice to the trade board that he is willing to be bound by the rate fixed and be liable to the same fine for underpayment as if the rate had been obligatory. employer will receive a contract from a Government department or local authority unless he has given notice to the trade board in this manner.

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The limited operation described above continues (unless the Board of Trade direct to the contrary in any case in which they have directed the trade board to reconsider the rate) until the Board of Trade make an order making the rate obligatory. Such an order must be made by the Board of Trade six months after notice of the fixing of the rate has been given by the trade board, unless the

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