ABSTRACT
The centre of the problem was the wage of the “average” worker, and it was tacitly supposed that the rates paid to workers above and below the average would be adjusted according to their comparative efficiencies. This chapter considers a different type of interference, directed not so much towards trades as towards individuals. It is probable that the enactment of a national minimum time-wage will incidentally prevent the payment of certain low wages that are unfair, in the sense that they are the result of exploitation, i.e. the payment by employers of less than their workpeople’s services are worth to them. The forcing up of this sort of low wage will, react favourably upon the size of the national dividend, by strengthening competent employers in their competition with incompetent rivals. The establishment of a national minimum time-wage would accomplish very little more than could be accomplished without it.
