ABSTRACT
social security is a subject big enough to require a volume or even several volumes to itself, and some of its problems, for example, actuarial questions, are outside the field of industrial relations. Other parts of social security are, however, so closely connected with industrial relations that they claim a place in this volume. Security is one of the main aspirations of the workers, and its attainment strengthens the foundations of industrial peace. From the middle of the nineteenth century many trade unions included sickness, unemployment, and other social security benefits among their main activities, while nowadays they not infrequently demand old age pensions or other forms of social security in collective bargaining with employers instead of trying to gain wage increases. This was done, for example, by powerful unions in the United States a few years after the end of the Second World War, and somewhat similar demands have been made in British industries. In France family allowances provided from employers' contributions have been associated with the wage system for several decades. In many State systems of social security the revenues are largely built up from contributions of workers and employers, and the employers' payments are a labour cost or a tax on employment which inevitably affects wages. Contributions made by the State are financed in a large part from taxes paid by employers and workers, and under present conditions of less inequalities of incomes in Britain, the part paid in this way by the workers is substantial.
