§ MR. M'LARENI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, whether his tatention has been called to the fact that the salary at which a woman clerk enters the Post Office service has been reduced from £65 to £55 per annum, with no corresponding change in the nature of her duties or in the requirements as to education, health, or character; can he state whether the scale of annual increment has also been reduced, and whether any similar reduction has been made in the case of men; and whether the change has been made on grounds of economy; and, if so, what is the annual saving to the country.
§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINThe reduction in the minimum salary for women clerks from £65 to £55 a year dates from 1897. Prior to that time the annual increment was £3 up to £100 the maximum salary of the lowest class, now the increment is £2 10s. a year up to £70, and then £5 a year from £70 to £100. Thus a young woman entering the Post Office service at 19 receives at once a guinea a week, which is believed to be more than she would generally get in outside employment. At the age of 25 she earns £70 a year, and at 31. if not previously promoted, £100 a year. The candidates for admission to the service on these terms are numerous and satisfactory. A similar 681 change was made as regards men clerks of the Second Division in 1889, when the minimum salary was reduced from £80 to £70. The reason for the change in the case of women clerks was not so much economy as the necessity for bringing their scale of wages into harmony with those for other classes of clerical labour. The result is, however, a small saving.