ABSTRACT
A wage is a price, and the wage structure is a subsystem of prices. Wage theory has tended historically to disintegrate on the supply side. It must operate with the concept of wage structure — the complex of rates within firms differentiated by occupation and employee and the complex of interfirm rate structures. The wage structure within a bargaining unit, plant, firm, association, or other grouping in which wage differentials are set by the authorities must be distinguished from the complex of interfirm or group structures each set by different agencies. A contour is confined to particular ranges of skill, occupations, or job clusters of the constituent firms. It has three dimensions: particular occupations or job clusters, a sector of industry, and a geographical location. The concepts of job cluster and wage contour are analogous. The structure of wage rates of a country reflects to some extent the course of its industrialization and economic development.
