ABSTRACT
Some special attention may profitably be given to the problem of wages as concerned with various groups of labourers in regard to whom the conceptions developed in the preceding chapter in the matter of the standard of living will not apply. There are some notable cases where a wage insufficient to maintain even the individual worker, much less to support a worker and a dependent family, can be accepted without even a tendency to react on the supply of labour. A good illustration is afforded by the case of women’s and children’s wages. In regard to the latter, the supply-price is not entirely unconnected with the amount supplied, but is not limited by the expenses of maintenance of the children. Its relation to the permanent supply of child labour is bound up with other questions. The total earnings of a family, rather than the earnings of individual members of it, form the fund the relation of which to the standard of living operates on the growth of numbers. So far as the children are concerned, provided their earnings exceed the amount by which their maintenance at work is more expensive than their support without a wage-earning employment, there is an apparent gain from the wages. Against this gain some set-off is formed in the diminution of the services which the child is able to render in the home as a result of being employed outside it. Though this may, in a numerous class of cases, cover the grounds on which the availability of children for wage-earning employment is determined, the consideration of the later working 137efficiency of the child acquires importance in many cases, and must be regarded when the broad problem of the labour supply of the community is under discussion. On the one hand, small present remuneration may be offset by the acquisition of knowledge, skill, and experience, which will enhance the later earning power of the learner. On the other hand, the securing of some earnings at an early age may prejudice the physical and mental development of the child, and seriously reduce later earning power. To the extent to which the latter represents the facts, the permanent industrial capacities of a class may be sacrificed through a short-sighted grasping after immediate advantage. If the future loss were fully realised, and present necessity did not interfere to compel the acceptance of disadvantageous terms, the holding back of child labour, till it could secure a wage adequate to fully compensate for the loss of future efficiency consequent on interference with physical and mental development, would perhaps render unnecessary legal interference with children’s labour. Holding for such terms would correspond to the restraint imposed on labour-supply by a standard of living of unyielding character. Such restraint on the supply of children for employment does not operate in practice, and a partial substitute, as a means of maintaining the industrial powers of the race, is afforded by legislative interference with the employment of young children.
