ABSTRACT
rapid improvements in transportation, the growing integration of economic life on a national scale, especially in a country so compact as Great Britain, and the increasing application of national economic policies compel consideration of the need for a national wages policy. A study of the wage structure, with separate scales in scores of different industries and many thousands of occupations indicates the complexity of the problems and might lead to the conclusion that the evolution of a common policy would be quite impracticable. Yet within many industries considerable progress has been made in the establishment of workable wage agreements covering the whole country, but in the past many of the same arguments were used against demands for wages within an industry to be regulated nationally as are now directed against proposals for a national policy to be applied to all industries. The forces now tending towards such a policy are similar to those leading to greater national unification on hours of work, social security, paid holidays, and other working conditions.
