CHAPTER VIII

THE PROBLEM OF WAGES

THE LABOURER’S SHARE IN DISTRIBUTION

I E have now to consider the application of the principles
V v developed in the general discussion of value to the
special case of labour, that is to say, to study the problem of
wages. In doing so, we have, as in the preceding chapters,
to give our attention to the demand and supply sides of the
problem in turn, We take up first the demand side. What
can an employer afford to pay for labour? The obvious
and direct answer is, as much as the labour is worth and
no more. This, however, requires closer examination.
Labour is generally associated with capital and land in
production, and we need to form a conception of the value
of the contribution, to the joint product, which labour
makes. Then, too, different kinds of labour, paid at many
different rates, are employed together, and the contributions
of the various grades to the total result must be disentangled
from one another if we would know what each grade is
worth, The case belongs to the complex cases of value to
which some attention was given in Chapter V, As shown in
that chapter, however, the contribution of labour, or of a
special grade of labour, can be, for practical purposes,
separated from the joint product.
Consider the case of a group of labourers performing
similar tasks. If their numbers can be increased or
decreased slightly, without a change in the rest of the
apparatus of production, with which they are associated,
the consequent change in the product can be directly
attributed to the change in their numbers. The loss in