Time Wages
Labour-power is sold for a
definite period of time. The value of labour-power i.e. the cost of
reproducing it over its average lifetime, can be reduced to these
component parts. For example, if a worker lives for 70 years and of
these works on average for 50, then if the cost of reproducing these
workers over their lifetime is £500,000, the annual cost is £10,000.
If they work for 50 weeks a year it is £200 a week. If they work 5
days a week, it is £40 a day, and if they work 8 hours a day, it is
£5 per hour.
This forms the basis of the
value of labour-power as time wages, i.e. the payment of wages for
labour-power supplied for a given period of time.
The laws set out in Chapter
17, relating to the value of labour, and its relative proportion
against surplus value then apply by a simple change of form of wages.
For example, if the value of labour-power falls, because necessaries
become cheaper, then in its transformed 'phenomenal' form, i.e. the
form it presents itself at the level of appearances, it shows up as
the difference between “nominal” and “real” wages. Here, if
the nominal wage remains constant, the real wage rises, because it
buys more of these now cheaper necessaries.
By the same token, the daily
or weekly wage may remain constant, and yet real wages fall, if the
length of the working day increases. Earlier, we said that if the
working day is 8 hours this equates to a value of labour-power of £5
per hour. However, if the weekly wage remains at £200, but the
working day rises from 8 hours to 10 hours, the real wage has fallen.
Previously, 8 hours work earned £40, now it requires 10 hours work
to earn the same amount, a fall from £5 per hour to £4 per hour.
If wages are paid by the
hour, then even though the price of labour remains constant, wages
will rise if more hours are then worked, and fall if fewer hours are
worked. The same applies if the worker works more intensively rather
than extensively i.e. more labour performed in the same period of
time.
Similarly, the price of
labour can fall whilst wages remain the same, if the workers family
can be employed. The household may now have the same weekly wage of
£200, required for its reproduction, but if now the wife works for
40 hours, and two children 10 hours each, that is a total of 100
hours. The price of labour will now have fallen from £200/40 = £5
per hour, to £200/100 = £2 per hour.
Marx quotes the author of
the “Essay on Trade and Commerce”, and Nassau Senior,
“This is perceived by
the fanatical representative of the industrial bourgeoisie of the
18th century, the author of the “Essay on Trade and Commerce”
often quoted by us, although he puts the matter in a confused way:
“It is the quantity of labour and not the price of it” (he means
by this the nominal daily or weekly wages) “that is determined by
the price of provisions and other necessaries: reduce the price of
necessaries very low, and of course you reduce the quantity of labour
in proportion. Master manufacturers know that there are various ways
of raising and felling the price of labour, besides that of altering
its nominal amount.” (op. cit., pp. 48, 61.) In his “Three
Lectures on the Rate of Wages,” London, 1830, in which N. W. Senior
uses West’s work without mentioning it, he says: “The labourer is
principally interested in the amount of wages” (p. 14), that is to
say, the labourer is principally interested in what he receives, the
nominal sum of his wages, not in that which he gives, the amount of
labour!” (Note 1, p 510)
Anyone who has acted as a TU
negotiator is well aware of this fact. A common strategy of
management in responding to pay claims has always been to offer the
prospect of increased amounts of overtime rather than increases in
the hourly rate, and all too frequently workers have been willing to
accept this higher top line figure rather than press for an increase
in the hourly rate.
“As a general law it
follows that, given the amount of daily or weekly labour, &c.,
the daily or weekly wages depend on the price of labour which itself
varies either with the value of labour-power, or with the difference
between its price and its value. Given, on the other hand, the price
of labour, the daily or weekly wages depend on the quantity of the
daily or weekly labour.” (p 510
Back To Chapter 19
Forward To Part 2
Back To Chapter 19
Forward To Part 2
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