THE WORKER'S WAGE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 277, 19 August 1919, Page 7

THE WORKER'S WAGE

NEW METHOD 01'" ASSESSING VALUE

PIECE RATES AND OTHERS

Pieco rates are not liked by the working man. There is, says a recent writer, "instinctive and latent hostility" to them. They lessen the responsibility of omployers, and lier.ee have been widely in favour. It is therefore a matter of interest to find Mr. Harrington Emerson, the high priest of efficiency in America, on the workin.iman's side in. conduMr.infr the piece system altogether. Whether the workman will like what ho wants to substitute'for it is another .question, lie would replace it by the schcdala plan, which he compares to the selling of goods by weight. It results, he says, ia "011 exaot relation between' pe.y and delivery." By the schedule method a man is paid by time, but his coy goes upo or down according to the amount of work that he accomplishes. How this differs from other methods ot' payment nwy be gathered from Mr. Emerson's illustrations iu an article contributed to "Industrial Management" (New York, June). Ho begins by asserting that all. American industrial life is over-equipped mid under-supervised—too much materia), too much equipment, too manv workers—all loosely and carelessly and inadequately handled and directed. He then goes on:

"Pieco rates increaso tho supervision by tho workers, and in this respect they weie a 6tep in the right direction; but in so far es they lessen the responsibility by and supervision of conditions by executives, they aro a step backward. Of course, we nil gratefully admit that piece rates were an attempt to correct the great evil of unplanned, unscheduled, and unsupervised or dispatched day work left to tho dishonest instincts of shirking foreigners.

"A few weeks ago I watched a gang 01' this. kind. They were using wheelbarrows to move gravel .sixty feel, from a pile in the street to a concrete-mixer 011 a lawn. A ton-mile a day, or one hundred pounds 011 a man's back twenty milts in a day, is a full day's work done daily by millions ,of workers. With a wheelbarrow, running on planks lo carry the load, the delivery ought to be more than a ton-mile a day. On account ot frequent- loading. I would cut the distance to ten miles, of which live miles would be with empty barrows. "A verv elementary and lenient timo and motion study shows;—

Time in minutes. To walk GO feet 0.5 To dump barrow n.t> To return empty 0,5 • To load barrow 1 For rest 0.5 Total 3,fl 20 trips per hour; KiO trips per day of eight hours. "These foreign iriends of mine, whoso uages were 0.5t) dollars (2s. Id.) an hour, li nile two round' trips nil hour instead of twenty.- The labour cost per borrow li-au Viiiii .0.25 dollars (about is.) of 0.025 dollars (about ltd.), The mail elficiency on ttiis easy schedule was ten per cent. Iu fact, the whole of the •n-ork was unnecessary, since the gravel could have been dumped without difficulty at the mixer. ".Between times these 'workers' sat on their barrows, smoked, gossiped, joked, laughed, and when they did shovel or vaiii tliey moved at a rate so slow as to bo an effort, although it was early iu the day. "We photographed lliem as a proof of loafing, out luiy actually lieligiitedly posed and asked for prints, "a piece-rau based on 0.70 dollars i'iiijout ;i;.) ail hour to the men -would havo been a gain ever tho day-rato plau. .i piece rates 'nave so manliest an advantage over day' rates through stau•Jardisiiii,' both coals and operations and through increasing responsibility and auumai.c i/.aiming, L-ciieduung, and dispatching, why are they opposed by nearly ail inuueru industrial specialists? ' "l'ney are otten Letter tnaii day work, yet they aro so inferior to the better plan of timo schedules that we have found mem (piece rates) the most serious barrier to tlie introduction of better methods whoso immediate lesult is both to lower costs, to increase output, and to increase individual compensation. "1 sliait tiy to illustrate, if 1 can, tin; difference between day work, piece rates, and time schedules; When a boy in a cuuu try, now regulations wtfre strict and where rubbing orchards was not a condoned privilege of boyhood, I used to pay a fixed sum, 0.25 dollars, for permission to enter a plum orchard and eat all I could, more or less. No connection between pay and consumption except my individual whim. An improvement in this plan is to soil eggs by the dozen, therefore by ilie piece.. But this is, after all, crude, sinco there is a great difference between l.antani and cocnin eggs. Some hen'-) eggs 1 recently bought were scarcoly larger than pigeon size. An improvement on tho piece plan is to sell by weight, sinco High it makes little ditlorence whether pigeon or gooso eggs we dolivered. "Tho day plan establishes 110 relation betwoen pay t.nd delivery. ' "Tho j)ioce plan establishes a crude relation between pay and delivery. "Tlio woight or other schedule plan establishes an exact reiation between pay and delivery. "There is, therefore, a better method, 'a much better method, the timo schedulo method, of compensating labour than oltlier day rates or pieco raits, a method that eliminates a great many wastes, therefore lossens cpsrs. The gain, which is very greal, is apportioned to four groups: "1. To the nublie, which, on account of price, buyr more, thus iurihor bonefiling both worker and manager. "2..T0 Iho worker.-, who receive progressively more per hour as unit costs fall.

"11. To the permanent managers, including financial backers. "I. To the passing specialists, either within or wilhout the organisation, whose patents or special skill in mothods of all kinds put tho better plan into operation.

"Tho worker ultimatoly gel? it all, sinco ho is also tho consumer, since tho managing group is recruited from tho worker, s-ince patents and other special methods after a whilo beooino publio