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(c)
(a)
the senior white-collar worker and the expatriate officer receiving basic monthly salaries of between $400 and $1,600;
the senior officer receiving basic monthly salary of over $1,600.
6.
The present cost of living allowances for officers receiving basic monthly salaries of less than $150 are based on the rehabilitation allowance which is calculated monthly from a simple unweighted index made up of ten items of food, cooking oil, and firewood. Officers receiving basic monthly salaries between $100 and $149 are paid a cost of living allowance equivalent to the rehabilitation allowance whereas officers receiving basic monthly salaries of less than $100 are paid a cost of living allowance equivalent to the rehabilitation allowance less $15. Since September 1947 the maximum rehabilitation allowance has been $93 and the minimum $78. There has been considerable criticism of an allowance which is liable to sharp variation at monthly intervals. A further criticism is that the increase of $15 in the cost of living allowance between basic monthly salaries of $99 to $100 occurs in the middle of the general incremental scale for semi-skilled workers. The Lo Committee proposed that the cost of living allowances should be dissociated from the rehabilitation allowance. Its recommendations were based on a general view of the monthly cost of living allowances paid in the thirteen months from September 1947 to October 1948. In addition the committee attempted, on representations made by the Commissioner of Labour, to meet the criticism levelled at the sudden increase of $15 on basic monthly salaries of $99 to $100 and recommended graded allowances from basic monthly salaries of $44 to $100.
The present proposals, while accepting the underlying principle of the Lo Committee, divides officers receiving basic monthly salaries of less than $150 into three grades: coolie, semi-skilled, and junior artisan. These grades can be clearly defined with reference to the standard salary scales recommended by the Salaries Commission. Under the present proposals the coolie, whose maximum basic monthly salary is $80, would receive a cost of living allowance of $72. This figure compares with the monthly average of $70.6 actually received between September 1947 and October 1948. The salary scales for semi-skilled officers are confined within the limits of basic monthly salaries of $80 to $128. This group is no longer divided into two classes but treated as a whole with a cost of living allowance of $87. This figure compares with the average monthly allowance of $85.6 received by the former top half of this group between September 1947 and October 1948. The third group comprises junior artisans with basic monthly salaries of more than $128 and less than $150 who are now given an allowance of 70% of basic salary in order to make a convenient bridge between officers receiving basic monthly salaries less than $128 and the white-collar worker who starts on a basic monthly salary of $150.
8.
The Lo Committee considered that those officers who were most badly in need of assistance as a result of the high cost of living in the Colony were the clerks with basic
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