§ 47. Major HILLSasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will have an inquiry made on the question whether female labour is in the long run of less value to the State than male labour?
Mr. CHAMBERLAINI doubt if an inquiry in the wide terms suggested could have any useful result. If, however, my right hon. and gallant Friend has in mind the narrower question of the relative value to the State, as employer, of the work of men and women State servants, this question has been considered by various commissions and committees of inquiry. I would refer in particular to the Report of the Royal Commission on the Civil Service, 1929–31 (Command Paper 3909).
§ Major HILLSIs my right hon. Friend aware that the Royal Commission came to no decision on the question of equal pay, but stated that they were about equally divided on it? May I take it that my right hon. Friend is in agreement with the Financial Secretary to the Treasury who stated in the Debate on the adjournment before Whitsuntide that the State get less value from women's work than from men's work?