Did you ever hear of "piece work"? I did not think so. I was talking to a younger person the other day and I could not seem to get him to think about work other than "by the hour". He seemed to have it fixation in his mind that the only measure of work was "by the hour". If that is the case, what did people do before there were clocks or before they could afford one? That is the point of this blog.
First, how about a story. When I was a kids about age 9, I picked cotton after school and on Saturdays. I was a good cotton picker and very competitive about it. On my best Saturday, I picked 200# of cotton. We were paid by "piece work" or by the amount of cotton we picked. The farmer did not care how many hours you spent picking cotton, he paid for the work that you actually did. Some kids goofed off and did not pick very much cotton and the farmer paid them accordingly. The farmer paid "the going rate" or the price per pound that it took to get people like me to come out and pick his cotton. If he paid less than "the going rate" no cotton pickers would show up at his farm. Why should he pay more than "the going rate" if he could get all his cotton picked at "the going rate"? This type of system has worked for thousands of years and even after the clock was invented. For the record, "the going rate" at the time was 3-1/2 cents per pound of cotton. That meant that I earned $7.00 picking cotton on my best Saturday.
The next year, "the going rate" changed. It seems that the automatic cotton picker was invented and some of the people who were picking cotton by hand invested in these automatic cotton pickers and were willing to pick the cotton for just 2 cents a pound. The new "going rate" was now only 2 cents a pound. I could still hand pick cotton on Saturdays, but I would be paid at "the new going rate" of just 2 cents a pound. Before my labor was worth $7.00 per day and nowI was only worth $4.00 per day. This was a simple case of efficiency. Cotton was now cheaper and more people could afford clothing made from cotton. Isn't this how we all expect the economy to work? Not quite.
If you are one of those people who have a mental blockage and think that "all" work should be measured by a clock, then you have a problem. Think of me, this poor kid who picks cotton on Saturdays and was earning almost a dollar an hour having a reduction in pay so that I now make less than 50 cents per hour. To protect me, you would advocate some kind of minimum wage around a dollar per hour. I know that this would help your ego, but would it actually help me? No! I could not find a single farmer who would hire me to pick his cotton. I would be totally out of work and pocket money to go to the movies or buy popcorn. I know that it is a cut in pay, but if there was no minimum wage I could still go out on Saturdays and pick cotton and make $4.00.
How about the farmer? How is he paid for his work? He takes the cotton to the cotton gin and runs it over the scales to get the weight. The cotton gin pays the farmer based on the number of pounds, not the time he spent planting or cultivating. The farmer was paid on "piece work" just the way he has been paid for the last few thousand years. Starting to see where this is going?
The young person that I was talking to seemed overly concerned about Mexicans in California who were picking some of the fruit and other crops. He was concerned that they were not being paid enough to take care of all their kids. He felt strongly that we needed some kind of higher minimum hourly wage. If the farmer was paying me and the other kids for picking cotton on Saturday based on the number hours that we were out picking, I think you know what would have happened. I know that I would not have worked as hard as I did to pick that 200# knowing that the other kids who were goofing off were going to earn as much as me. When people talk about some kind of "fair" wage per hour, exactly who is it fair for? Not me nor the farmer.
Think about this one. When I went to school, we had about 30 kids in the class with one teacher. Our test scores were better back then than the test scores are today. Now the teacher only teaches 20 kids and the test scores are worse. If this were done on the basis of "piece work", most teachers would make much less, but some would actually make more. Just like I earned more than the other kids picking cotton.
If piece work is so much better, why do we now pay mostly by the hour? That is a very good question. Number one, it is easier to administer. Second, poor performers feel good and we know that we have a lot of poor performers. Most of the good performers adjust their work downward so that they don't feel so bad and try to improve their skills so that they can get a promotion. Over time, the good performers move up and out and leave the mass of poor performers doing the work.
What we need to do is to consider "all" jobs as "piece work" and then only shift to "by the hour" after we have found that we can't administer a "piece work" pay system. Look at most of the high paying sales jobs? They get paid on "commission". This is actually "piece work". Look at pro football, They are paid on "piece work", rushing yardage, passing yards, tackles, interceptions, etc. Some how we have to break the cycle of thinking that all work should be "by the hour", if we don't our economy will continue to go down hill.
Simple isn't it?
First, how about a story. When I was a kids about age 9, I picked cotton after school and on Saturdays. I was a good cotton picker and very competitive about it. On my best Saturday, I picked 200# of cotton. We were paid by "piece work" or by the amount of cotton we picked. The farmer did not care how many hours you spent picking cotton, he paid for the work that you actually did. Some kids goofed off and did not pick very much cotton and the farmer paid them accordingly. The farmer paid "the going rate" or the price per pound that it took to get people like me to come out and pick his cotton. If he paid less than "the going rate" no cotton pickers would show up at his farm. Why should he pay more than "the going rate" if he could get all his cotton picked at "the going rate"? This type of system has worked for thousands of years and even after the clock was invented. For the record, "the going rate" at the time was 3-1/2 cents per pound of cotton. That meant that I earned $7.00 picking cotton on my best Saturday.
The next year, "the going rate" changed. It seems that the automatic cotton picker was invented and some of the people who were picking cotton by hand invested in these automatic cotton pickers and were willing to pick the cotton for just 2 cents a pound. The new "going rate" was now only 2 cents a pound. I could still hand pick cotton on Saturdays, but I would be paid at "the new going rate" of just 2 cents a pound. Before my labor was worth $7.00 per day and nowI was only worth $4.00 per day. This was a simple case of efficiency. Cotton was now cheaper and more people could afford clothing made from cotton. Isn't this how we all expect the economy to work? Not quite.
If you are one of those people who have a mental blockage and think that "all" work should be measured by a clock, then you have a problem. Think of me, this poor kid who picks cotton on Saturdays and was earning almost a dollar an hour having a reduction in pay so that I now make less than 50 cents per hour. To protect me, you would advocate some kind of minimum wage around a dollar per hour. I know that this would help your ego, but would it actually help me? No! I could not find a single farmer who would hire me to pick his cotton. I would be totally out of work and pocket money to go to the movies or buy popcorn. I know that it is a cut in pay, but if there was no minimum wage I could still go out on Saturdays and pick cotton and make $4.00.
How about the farmer? How is he paid for his work? He takes the cotton to the cotton gin and runs it over the scales to get the weight. The cotton gin pays the farmer based on the number of pounds, not the time he spent planting or cultivating. The farmer was paid on "piece work" just the way he has been paid for the last few thousand years. Starting to see where this is going?
The young person that I was talking to seemed overly concerned about Mexicans in California who were picking some of the fruit and other crops. He was concerned that they were not being paid enough to take care of all their kids. He felt strongly that we needed some kind of higher minimum hourly wage. If the farmer was paying me and the other kids for picking cotton on Saturday based on the number hours that we were out picking, I think you know what would have happened. I know that I would not have worked as hard as I did to pick that 200# knowing that the other kids who were goofing off were going to earn as much as me. When people talk about some kind of "fair" wage per hour, exactly who is it fair for? Not me nor the farmer.
Think about this one. When I went to school, we had about 30 kids in the class with one teacher. Our test scores were better back then than the test scores are today. Now the teacher only teaches 20 kids and the test scores are worse. If this were done on the basis of "piece work", most teachers would make much less, but some would actually make more. Just like I earned more than the other kids picking cotton.
If piece work is so much better, why do we now pay mostly by the hour? That is a very good question. Number one, it is easier to administer. Second, poor performers feel good and we know that we have a lot of poor performers. Most of the good performers adjust their work downward so that they don't feel so bad and try to improve their skills so that they can get a promotion. Over time, the good performers move up and out and leave the mass of poor performers doing the work.
What we need to do is to consider "all" jobs as "piece work" and then only shift to "by the hour" after we have found that we can't administer a "piece work" pay system. Look at most of the high paying sales jobs? They get paid on "commission". This is actually "piece work". Look at pro football, They are paid on "piece work", rushing yardage, passing yards, tackles, interceptions, etc. Some how we have to break the cycle of thinking that all work should be "by the hour", if we don't our economy will continue to go down hill.
Simple isn't it?
