Page:The Feminist Movement - Snowden - 1912.djvu/230

 Australia, where women have the vote, the Government has fixed a minimum wage for State employees, the same for women as for men.

It is believed by all qualified to express an opinion that one of the inevitable and speedy results of woman suffrage would be the establishment of the principle of equal pay for equal work in all Government workrooms. It is important that it should be so, since there is no doubt that the standard set by the Government, the greatest employer of labour in the land, has a considerable influence upon the private employers all over the country. These cannot be expected to take all the risks which the private employer in competition with his fellows must take, and pay better wages than the Government with all the resources of the country at its command. By fixing a legal minimum, appointing factory inspectors, shortening hours, safeguarding machinery, protecting Trade Unions, and in a hundred other ways improving labour conditions, the Government of the country is really raising the wages of its people, since it is providing more leisure, safety, and security, for the same money that was available before the legislation was enacted.

The feminist principle of equal pay for equal work meets with a considerable amount