Remuneration

“ The remuneration of capital in different employments, much more than the remuneration of labor, varies according to the circumstances which render one employment more attractive or more repulsive than another. The profits, for example, of retail trade, in proportion to the capital employed, exceed those of wholesale dealers or manufacturers, for this reason among others, that there is less consideration attached to the employment. ”

“ If a man were, in return for money lent, as though there had been an agreement tacit or expressed, to expect or exact repayment in the shape of some remuneration of service or words, it would be the same as if he expected or exacted some real remuneration, because both can be priced at a money value, as may be seen in the case of those who offer for hire the labor which they exercise by work or by tongue. ”

“ When an occupation is carried on chiefly by persons who derive the main portion of their subsistence from other sources, its remuneration may be lower almost to any extent, than the wages of equally severe labour in other employments. ”

“ By demanding for labor such remuneration as will allow the laborer to share in the profits resulting from his toil, [Pg 461] either by treating it as an investment in the business in which it is employed, or by the payment of such compensation as will allow a surplus for investment—refusing to wear out their lives in procuring a bare subsistence. ”

“ The essential point lies in the definition of the word “wages” as the “recompense, reward or remuneration of labour,” which implies not necessarily any gross sum in question between employer and workmen where there is a contract to perform a certain piece of work, but that part of it, the real net wage, which the workman was to get as his recompense for the labour performed. ”

“ In mathematical language, remuneration could no longer be conceived and handled as a "function" of productivity,—unless productivity be taken to mean pecuniary serviceability to the person who pays the remuneration. In modern life remuneration is, in the last analysis, uniformly obtained by virtue of an agreement between individuals who commonly proceed on their own interest in point of pecuniary gain. ”

“ And the next simplest form of production, beyond the result of mere labour, is that, where, in addition to the labour employed directly on the commodity and on the simple tools necessary to its production, the condition of the supply requires that a certain compensation be made in the final remuneration for the time which has elapsed from the period of the advances of the labour, to the period when the labourer, or capitalist, can be remunerated. ”

“ These inequalities of remuneration, which are supposed to compensate for the disagreeable circumstances of particular employments, would, under certain conditions, be natural consequences of perfectly free competition: and as between employments of about the same grade, and filled by nearly the same description of people, they are, no doubt, for the most part, realized in practice. ”

“ It is enough if each product contributes a fraction, commonly an insignificant one, towards the remuneration of that labour and abstinence, or towards indemnifying the immediate producer for advancing that remuneration to the person who produced the tools. ”

“ Wages.—The term "wages" means all remunerations for employment, whether payable in money or something other than money. The name by which such remuneration is designated is immaterial. Thus, salaries, commissions on sales or on insurance premiums, fees, and bonuses, are wages within the meaning of the Act if payable by an employer to his employee as compensation for services not excepted by the Act. The basis upon which the remunerations is payable, the amount of remuneration, and the time of payment are immaterial in determining whether the remuneration constitutes "wages." ”

“ A person possessed of all these requisites, and otherwise properly qualified to level and set out new lines, &c., where necessary, must receive the remuneration such a character merits, and may always obtain, in this active and industrious country. But however convinced and well-disposed trustees maybe to give this remuneration, the tolls of five or six miles do not afford the means of giving it. ”

“ The amount of the remuneration in such a case, depends chiefly upon whether the quantity of the commodity, produced by this description of labour, suffices to supply the whole of the demand. If it does not, and there is consequently a necessity for some labourers who devote themselves entirely to the employment, the price of the article must be sufficient to pay those labourers at the ordinary rate, and to reward therefore very handsomely the domestic producers. ”

“ If he does not, his remuneration is not, strictly speaking, wages, for the furnishing of surplus-labor by the worker is a condition sine qua non of wages. When his compensation is split up into wages and supplementary remuneration under the form of profit-sharing or under any other form, the workingman does not furnish less surplus-labor, less unpaid labor ”

“ Oftentimes the plea for raising salaries is one which is self-propagating. Expenses have been greatly enlarged and the remuneration must keep pace with them. Yes, but will not this very increase lead to increased expenditure? ”

“ We find in the above law an explanation of the rise in wages, inasmuch as exceptional men in all degrees tend to receive as wages or remuneration for services of the same per-capita saving a sum proportional to the total population. ”

“ Wages, like other things, may be regulated either by competition or by custom. In this country there are few kinds of labour of which the remuneration would not be lower than it is, if the employer took the full advantage of competition. Competition, however, must be regarded, in the present state of society, as the principal regulator of wages, and custom or individual character only as a modifying circumstance, and that in a comparatively slight degree. ”

“ Under Article VI, which covers remuneration of labor, the law provides that in working out tariff rates and determining the standard rates of remuneration all wage earners of a trade shall be divided into groups of skill, and a definite standard of remuneration shall be fixed for each group. ”

“ In them the remuneration of the majority of the workpeople is regulated by sliding scales under which wages rise and fall in accordance with prescribed advances or reductions in the selling price of the manufactured article, this price being ascertained by accountants at specified intervals. Although the general adjustment of wages is the main object, other useful functions are exercised in these trades by the Boards. ”

“ The persons who remain are either persons carrying on profitable branches of commerce, the very existence of which requires the presence of principals upon the spot, and their clerks and servants, who have been tempted by high wages to stay. To give an idea of the rate of remuneration paid, I may mention that salesmen and shopmen have been receiving at the rate of from two thousand three hundred to two thousand seven hundred dollars, with their board, per annum. ”

“ That the reward or payment for the public labours of the officers be determined by the shareholders assembled at the general meetings, it being understood that all public officers, where any considerable amount of labour is required, have a fair and sufficient remuneration for the time of service, but no retiring salary. ”

“ Excepting the remuneration paid for overtime work done in the same or in a different branch of labor, no additional remuneration in excess of the standard fixed for a given group and category shall be permitted, irrespective of the pretext and form under which it might be offered and whether it be paid in only one or in several places of employment. ”

“ The amount was known, and, though liberal, it was limited, and, certainly, would not appear, from the statements made of it, to be more than a fair remuneration to men employed as those were to whom it was allotted. ”

“ O that's the Latin word for three far- 144
things: three farthings, remuneration. 'What's
the price of this inkle?' 'One penny.' 'No, I'll
give you a remuneration': why, it carries it.
Remuneration! why, it is a fairer name than 148
French crown. I will never buy and sell out of
this word.
Enter Berowne.
Ber. O my good knave Costard, exceedingly
well met! 152
Cost. Pray you, sir, how much carnation
ribbon may a man buy for a remuneration?
Ber. What is a remuneration?
Cost. Marry, sir, halfpenny farthing. 156
Ber. Oh! Why then, three-farthing-worth of silk. ”

“ We have learned, however, in the course of the present chapter, that the fact of an increase in the rate of remuneration having been artificially caused, furnishes no reason why, in the great majority of cases, that increase should not be lasting.... ”

“ Any shopkeeper, dealer, or trader, who by way of trade makes any arrangement express or implied with any worker in pursuance of which the worker performs any work for which a minimum rate of wages has been fixed under this Act, shall be deemed for the purposes of this Act to be the employer of the worker, and the net remuneration obtainable by the worker in respect of the work after allowing for his necessary expenditure in connection with the work shall be I deemed to be wages. ”

“ Therefore we offer you the position with great pleasure and honor to ourselves. The remuneration for the first year will be five thousand American dollars, gold. After the first year, if our relations are mutually satisfactory, we will offer you a five-year contract with bonus terms which should more than double your salary. ”

“ This economic or technical sense of the word wages is broader than the current sense, and includes not only amounts actually paid to laborers, but the remuneration obtained by those who sell the products of their own work, and the wages of superintendence or management, which are earned by skill in directing the work of others. ”

“ Having regard to the increased cost of living and the rise in the value of most classes of labour, they submitted that the time had arrived when such an addition should be made to their pay as would constitute a more adequate remuneration for their arduous and responsible duties. A Commission of Inquiry was also strongly asked for to receive evidence on the questions of promotion, Sunday labour, and general grievances not specified but known to exist. ”

“ Unless circumstances make it absolutely impossible, some remuneration, even though it be not more than one dollar per month, is exacted; and, as it occasionally happens, when both parents are living and are able-bodied, full price for board is required. ”

“ Doubtless so prosaic a detail as the system of remuneration has never occupied your refined thoughts, but when it is understood that those in the position of this person are rewarded according to the success of the candidates you will begin to grasp the attitude. ”

“ Remuneration by wages has the principle of fixity, so much sought after, 357. Opinions of the Socialists on this subject controverted, 357, 358. Wages, their origin, form, and effects, 358. Labour may be remunerated either by share of its product or by fixed wages, 359. Dependence not caused by form of remuneration, but by precarious situation of labourer, ib. No men worse off than fishermen and vine-dressers, though they have the benefits of association, 359, 360. Results of labour applied to the chase, fishing, or agriculture very uncertain, ib. ”

“ To have a full stomach, to doze lazily in the sunshine—such things were remuneration in full for his ardors and toils, while his ardors and toils were in themselves self-remunerative. ”

“ What the term for natural compensation out of human production for human service in aid of production might better be, is of no importance provided the term be treated distinctively. For Labor compensation out of Labor-produced Wealth, Wages if treated distinctively is an appropriate term, and its long time comprehensive use in Economics entitles it to preference. Wages, then, the technical term in Economic science for that natural allocation of some Wealth to Labor, which produces all Wealth, demands primary consideration in any study of the Economic phenomena of Wealth Distribution. ”

“ And, secondly, what may be called for a lack of a better name, the doctrine of special reward—by which is meant, that the wage differentials between the standard wage levels of different types of labor should be regarded as special rewards, given in order to make it reasonably certain that industry will be provided with at least the existing proportion of the more skilled grades of labor, and to make it reasonably certain also that the more arduous, irregular, dangerous and disagreeable work will command the service of as much labor as at present. ”

“ Wages defined.—Hence it is fair to define wages as a stipulated sum, paid at stipulated times, for stipulated services, measured either by the number of distinct services or by the time of service. A wage-earner must therefore be one who sells his powers, whatever they may be, for the use of another, bringing his own services rather than the products of those services to the best market he can find. ”

“ When we are all in the business working together, we all ought to have some share in the profits--by way of a good wage, or salary, or added compensation. And that is beginning now quite generally to be recognized. ”

“ Similarly, the obligation of the enterprise to the wage earners has been considered fulfilled by the payment of wages earned. The wage earners have been called upon to give their whole-hearted efforts to their work by reason of the belief that such effort was to their own interest, and by reason of their own hopes and desires for advancement. The American wage earners have usually tackled their jobs with energy, good will, and sincerity. ”