Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1850495947

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-233603

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: His Majesty's Stationery Off.

Year of publication:: 1931

Scope:: xviii, 580 S.; graph. Darst., Kt.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter XII. - The income of the industrial worker

Collection:: Economics Books

THE INCOME OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORKER. 209 anxious not to enter on a field which lies outside our proper functions ; but we have been struck by the contrasts presented in industrial and commercial organisation. We also found many employers unaware of the successful experiments of others in the labour field. Indeed, many of our recommendations are no more than the advocacy on a gencral scale of those ideas of individual employers which have proved successful in application. Conception of Fixed Standard. We turn now to the most direct method of raising the standard of living, namely, the raising of the earnings of the worker. It is necessary here to deal with a preliminary objection which was put before 11s on more than one occasion and has even found its way into official reports, It is urged, and apparently believed by not a few employers, that the worker has a fixed standard at which he aims, and that, when he has sarned enough to maintain that standard, he ceases to make any further effort. This view is frequently coupled with the belief that the worker has already attained the standard he desires. If this were true, an increase in wage rates would do more harm than good, for it would diminish production without benefiting she worker financially. On this view, it is only by getting she worker to spend his money more wisely that any advance is possible. In dealing with a great and varied mass of workers, it is rash bo say that such a doctrine is true in respect of none of them. very nation can produce men who are satisfied with the barest needs and will make no further effort after these are supplied. It must also be admitted that ambition is not particularly vigorous with many [ndian workers; we return to the causes of this later. But it is not difficult to show that the doctrine is not true of the great bulk of Indian industrial labour, for it ig contradicted by the facts. If it were true, it would be impossible to raise the workers’ standard of living except by coercion ; yet there is no doubt that it has in fact risen appreciably in recent years. Reference has been made to the lack of cost of living index numbers, but there is ample evidence to show bhat the level of real wages, particularly in the more organised industries, is now appreciably higher than it was ten years ago. Few, even of those who hold the belief mentioned, would deny this. The evidence of unprejudiced observers regarding improvement in the general standard of living and the increase in the level of real wages show that the workers’ earnings have risen, 4.e., that the idea of any general fixed standard is fallacious. What, is both true and largely responsible for this mistaken judgment is that a sudden accretion of income is seldom wisely spent ; the worker cannot raise his standard of living overnight. Further, as the standard of comfort is improved, there 1s an intelligible and reasonable tendency to secure some increase in leisure at the expense of part of the possible increase in income. We ban appreciate the preference of the worker for some remission of toil, 'r

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