The Basic Wage is considered to be the ethical
element in Australia's complex and legalistic system of
wage determination; the application of the philosophy
of a 'fair go' to the lowest paid adult male worker.
More than any other moment in time, November 1907 is
seen as the occasion when society acknowledged its
obligation to guarantee the unskilled man a definite
minimum standard of living. Higgins spelled out
carefully yet categorically the imperative of the
Living Wage; and by erecting thereon an hierarchy of
'customary' margins for skill made it 'basic' to the
entire wage structure. This thesis accepts that the personality of
Higgins was important in the development of the concept
and practice of the Living Wage. Yet more fundamental
were the economic 1 social and political factors which.
influenced attitudes of important interest groups to
problems of wage determination. The sequence of study
then is to first sketch the character of Higgins in the
Introduction, and turn next in the first chapter to
summarise the nature of Australian economic
development: from prosperity, high wages and full
employment, 1860-1890, to depression, reduced wages and
persistent unemployment for most of the nineties and
again from 1902~1905. Money wages, effective wages,
and unemployment estimates are presented to illustrate
the pace and direction of change. Chapter Two directs attention to the wage
experience of unskilled wage earners. The wage indices
presented suggest that in the 1900s, most of the
unskilled earned substantially less than the Harvester
wage of 7/- a day. Together, the continuing abundance
of this grade of labour, price inflation, and the war
held their average wage to approximately four fifths of
this 1 ideal' wage - until 1921.
Responses to changed conditions by labour,
employers and government over the decades 1890-1910 are
discussed in Chapters Three, Four and Five, with the
intention of tracing changing attitudes to wage
determining processes. Particularly stressed is the
shift of power in wage bargaining against labour, both
in the 1890s and 1900s, and the unions' attempts to
manipulate state power in the interests of wage earners.
Similarly, employers' responses to changed conditions
are considered to point out resistances to the growth
of quasi-legislative wage determining tribunals. In
these chapters, emphasis is laid on labour and
employer concern for protection - this as the main
basis for interest reconciliation and ultimately for
the provision of industrial tribunals, It is further suggested that government policy
mostly reflected the outcome of influences exerted by
the major interest groups. The result, as shown in
Chapter Five, was the imposition of the 7/- a day
Living Wage for public works and the emergence of
specialised institutions to guarantee 'fair and
reasonable' wages in the private sector. Chapter Six surveys attitudes to wage principles
insofar as they were relevant to the growth of the
Living Wage concept, whilst Chapter Seven discusses the
development and importance of wages boards in Victoria
and the Arbitration Court in New South Wales.
The chapter entitled 'The Harvester Judgment'
describes the attitudes of labour and employers in
1907, outlines Higgins' ideas on industrial dispute
settlement, and suggests the Living Wage of 7/- a day
was his attempt to raise wages paid for unskilled work
to pre-depression standards. Finally, chapter nine
attempts to indicate some of the institutional
difficulties of establishing a national minimum wage
and to state the importance of Harvester in the
process