ABSTRACT
Two opposite poles of wage payment are payment according to time worked and payment according to pieces made. Direct observation has shown, as might be expected, that more pieces are made per day when wages are paid by the piece than by the hour. In 1915 I recorded the output of two shifts of seventeen girls drilling fuses, in two consecutive weeks, one before and the other immediately after changing from time to a piece wage. 1 The output on the day shift was 24 per cent, the output on the night shift 40 per cent higher on piece than when on time rate. Higher rates of output on piece rates are, indeed, generally admitted, and further advantages accrue both to employer and worker, as a result of piece rates which may be symmetrically arranged thus: https://www.niso.org/standards/z39-96/ns/oasis-exchange/table">
Advantages of Piece Rates
To Employer:
To Worker:
Greater output
Greater earnings
Labour cost easy to calculate for each piece
Fair reward for personal effort
Less supervision required for quantity of output
More independence acquired
