CO129-524-1 Reports of Salaries Commission 31-12-1929 - 27-10-1930 — Page 194

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appropriate to a certain post, class or grade, an existing officer should enter that scale at the point corresponding t: his scrrice.

A

There is, moreover, an insuperable difficulty in allotting to existing staff on sterling salaries the nearest figure in the new scales to their existing emoluments in

the that effect of fluctuations of exchange on present and revised emoluments is widely divergent. Thus, when tho sterling value of the dollar is 2/- £1,000 nominal salary on the present sliding scale with temporary allowance amounts to £1,344 actual salary. On the basis of the Report the cquivalent salary of £1150 with 15% High Cost of Living Allowance would amount to £1322. 10.0. But with the dollar at 1100. the former figure drops to £1276, while the latter remains constant, and a slight loss is converted into a substantial gain. Similar divergence occurs when the ralue of the dollar risos above 2/-. £1,000 nominal then becomes on the existing system 1,404, while £1150 and 15% becomes £1433, since under the new system the exchange rate for conversion purposes is not to risc above 2/-. This difficulty docs not, of course, arise with dollar salaries, but it is clear that the system of application must bc

uniform throughout the Scrvice.

(ii) Attention is invited to the statement in paragraph 14 of the Report that, in order to counterbalance the incrcasc in the cost of living, risc of 23% in dollar salaries is called for. This pronouncement further strengthens the

contention

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