CO129-572-8 Leave and passage regulations 4-2-1938 - 30-12-1938 — Page 24

sterling salaries, and every dollar taken off the nominal dollar

salary for any purpose was equivalent to a levy of 3/- sterling.

Now, all the dollar officers at present concerned were obliged

to contribute to a widows' and orphans' pension fund or scheme,

and the rate of contribution was 4% on their salaries. All

sterling officers were also obliged to contribute 4% of their

salaries. Thus a sterling officer on a salary of £600 would

contribute the current equivalent of £24, leaving him with £576

net pay.

With double exchange compensation the nominal dollar

salary equivalent to £600 would be a salary of $4000, because

$4000 at 3/- is equivalent to £600. At least from 1908 onwards,

the method of deducting the widows' and orphans' contribution

in the case of nominal dollar salaries was as follows. The con-

tribution of 4% was first taken off the nominal salary, and the

double exchange compensation allowance was then calculated on

the balance. For example, still assuming a current rate of 2/-,

in the case of an officer with a nominal dollar salary of $4000,

the deduction would be $160, the balance would be $3840, double

exchange compensation on this would be $1920, and the net pay

drawn by the officer would be $5760. $5760 at 2/-, the assumed

current rate, is equivalent to £576, which is exactly the same

as the £576 net pay drawn by the sterling officer on a salary of

£600. Both would of course actually be paid in current 2/-

dollars, the assumed current rate throughout the year, and both

would receive exactly the same number of current dollars, 1.0.

$5760. Accordingly, the sterling value of the contribution of

both officers, and the sterling value of the gain to the fund

before the 31st December 1908, and sterling value of the saving

by revenue after the 30th December 1908, were exactly the same

respectively. There is therefore no justification for treating

the so-called "dollar" widows' pensions in any different way from

"sterling" widows' pensions. The "dollar" widows' pensions are

pensions in which, because of the sterling value of the contri-

butions, each dollar is worth 3/-. Anyone unacquainted with

double exchange compensation might easily miss this essential

fact, though we would point out that, as we believe, when the