Showing papers on "Remuneration published in 1974"

PROSPECTS FOR EQUAL PAY INBRITAIN:Retail Distribution and the Equal Pay Act 1970

Abstract: Equal Pay—Objectives and Achievement Equal pay for women has a history of policy declarations dating back in Great Britain to the resolution of the Trades Union Congress in 1888: “That in the opinion of this Congress it is desirable, in the interests of both men and women, that in trades where women do the same work as men, they shall receive the same pay.” On an international level the International Labour Organisation included the concept of “equal remuneration for work of equal value” in its constitution adopted in 1919, reiterating the principle in Convention 100 in 1951, which was not however ratified by this country until 1971, one year after the passage of the Equal Pay Act. The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 states that “everyone, without distinction, has the right to equal pay for equal work”, with a more precise definition in its 1967 Declation on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, “that all appropriate measures shall be taken to ensure to women,… the right to equal remuneration with men and to equality of treatment in respect of work of equal value”. In contrast, under Article 119 of the Treaty of Rome member states of the European Economic Community are required to “ensure and subsequently maintain the application of the principle that men and women should receive equal pay for equal work”.

A neoclassical measure of labor exploitation in American agriculture

Abstract: Summary The paper deals with the problem of labor remuneration in American agriculture over a twenty-four year period. The analysis is carried out within a neoclassical framework. Thus, it explicitly addresses the question of whether agricultural workers have been paid according to the value of their marginal productivity. To this end, a model of factor augmenting technical progress is adopted. With the further assumptions that the rate of change of labor efficiency is non-negative, and that the elasticity of substitution between capital and labor is greater than one, it is shown that American agricultural workers have been paid wages consistently lower than the value of their marginal productivity. The problem of aggregating all the labor force into a single category is discussed at some length. It is also argued that the productive structure of the sector creates the conditions for the ‘self exploitation’ of family labor. The limitation of the analysis lies in the assumption of a linear homogeneous production function. The same assumption, however, constitutes also its great advantage in that it does not require data on capital investment and the rate of profit. Such data are difficult to collect and are often controversial.

Faculty Benefits at Fifty Major Universities

Abstract: This study of faculty benefits shows that the level of benefits and university contributions to the cost thereof varied considerably among fifty major universities in 1972. Total benefit points ranged from 245 to 413 on a rating scale of 500 points. Benefits for the Big Ten athletic conference were superior to those of all but one other conference in the study, the Atlantic Coast conference. Benefits for northern universities were superior to those in the South. Comparisons revealed the superiority of nonurban benefits relative to those at urban universities and some indications of superior benefits in the private universities. The group of southeastern universities had inferior total benefits. There was no evidence that poor benefit plans were compensated for by higher salaries. Faculty benefits (i.e., insurance, pensions, sabbatical leaves, tuition waivers, and other nonsalary remuneration) are a significant part of the total compensation for persons employed in the United States. The United States Department of Labor reported, in 1970, that average employer contributions to employee benefits in private industry were 26.6 percent of basic wages and salaries; for one-tenth of employers such contributions were over 38 percent. These percentages included the costs of vacations, other paid leaves, and compulsory benefits such as workmen's compensation. When the definition of employee benefits was confined to group life insurance, health insurance, and pensions (including Social Security), employer contributions averaged 14.7 percent. It would appear that the typical employer in private industry attaches considerable importance to satisfying the economic security needs of employees in an organized group manner. To the extent that current and prospective faculty members value group benefits, it is in the best interest of a university to compare its benefit package with that of other universities with which it competes in the job market. Likewise, an individual in the market for an academic position S. Travis Pritchett, D.B.A., C.L.U., C.P.C.U., is an Associate Professor of Finance and Insurance at the University of South Carolina. James S. Trieschmann, D.B.A., C.P.C.U., is an Assistant Professor of Insurance at the University of Georgia. This paper was presented at the 1973 Annual Meeting of ARIA.

Careers: EEs' salaries: On the inflationary rack: With employees' real disposable income plummeting, some corporations are reevaluating traditional wage policies

Abstract: It is true, as a relatively stable salary levelled employee, the engineer in an inflationary spiral will not fare as well as the hourly or union worker. So, relatively, engineers lose in net income during this period.

Improving Working Life--The Role of European Unions.

Abstract: Efforts to humanize work are part of the broad worldwide concern for a better quality of life. On the shop floor and at the bargaining table, these efforts cover safety and health, improved systems of remuneration, job security, and better welfare provisions. Proposals to humanize work run the gamut of employer-employee relations from the early demand for "industrial democracy" first coined by Beatrice and Sydney Webb to the demand for worker representation on companies' boards of directors and for workers' control or self-management. More recently they have ranged to a demand for restructuring and reorganizing work to relieve the worker from the deadening impact of monotonous, repetitive, and boring work and pressures on the assembly line. A previous Monthly Labor Review article described efforts to make work more meaningful through worker participation in management decisions.1 This report describes attempts to restructure and reorganize work in several Western European nations and focuses on the role unions have played in these efforts.

Optimal specification of incentive remuneration systems

Abstract: Setting of the problem: entrepreneurs try to fix the parameters of the wage function — in addition to their product prices — in order to maximize their profits, assuming that the employees maximize their ophelimity. The wage formula expresses wage rates in terms of — inter alia — productivity of labour and quality of the product, while the employee's ophelimity depends on — at least — all three variables. The resulting “optimal“ remuneration systems are derived, and their implications and sensitivities are examined.