ABSTRACT
A wage is a price; it is the price paid by one person to another on account of labor performed. Where large numbers of workmen are employed and the personal relations between the employer and workmen vanish, all laborers in a group receive the same wage. The piece wage puts each worker upon his own mettle, appeals to his self-interest or personal ambition, and breaks down the co-operative spirit upon which unions depend. Money wages refer to the content of the pay-envelope, to the number of dollars the wage-earner receives. By real wages is meant not the number of dollars, but the amount of purchasing power received. Money wages may remain the same, while real wages vary because of price movements. Men pay present wages out of accumulated capital, to be sure, but the willingness to hire labor and the amount paid for it depend upon the anticipated product of labor.
