exceeded those obtained for men.


THE QUESTION OF A SINGLE MINIMUM

Criticism of Trade Boards has fastened on their power to determine
higher rates of wages for skilled workers, one of the additional powers
that they secured under the Act of 1918. There are many who agree that a
bare minimum should be fixed by a statutory authority with legal powers,
but think that this should be the beginning and end of law's
interference. As to this, it must be said, first, that the wide margin
between a subsistence wage and a human needs wage, brought out by Mr.
Rowntree's calculations, shows that there can be no question at present
of a single minimum. To give the "human needs" figure legislative
sanction would at present be Utopian. Very few Trade Boards ventured so
far even when trade was booming. The Boards move in the region between
bare subsistence and "human needs," as trade conditions allow, and can
secure a better figure for some classes of their clients when they
cannot secure it for all. They therefore need all the elasticity which
the present law gives them.

On the other hand, it is contended with some force by the Cave Committee
that it is improper for appointed members to decide questions of
relatively high wages for skilled men or for the law to enforce such
wages by criminal proceedings, and the Committee accordingly propose to
differentiate between higher and lower minima both as regards the method
of determination and of enforcement. I have not time here to discuss the
details of their proposal, but I wish to say a word on the retention--if
in some altered shape--of the powers given by the Act of 1918. The Trade
Board system has been remarkable for the development of understanding