844 BEPORT— 1892. 



On the other hand, the second proposal is in keeping with the system of local 

 rating adopted, for vacant land, being excepted from rating, is treated diH'erently 

 from other real property. The third proposal is the most complex ; because it is 

 not a matter of taxation, but of the acquisition of property, and the difficulty of 

 the problem consists in the fact that it is desired to appropriate real property 

 without assuming the right to administer it. The unearned increment is an 

 additional value given to land by a certain increase in the demand for it ; and the 

 increased demand is caused by certain pecuniary advantages which settlement on 

 the land conveys. In so far, therefore, as the community which causes the demand 

 acquires the unearned increment accruing therefrom, the consequence will be that 

 that community will acquire the advantage over others which formerly augmented 

 the rental paid. The actual economic result, however, is probably indeterminate. 

 In conclusion, the author discusses the possible method whereby the unearned 

 increment could in practice be absorbed by the community. 



Report on the Teacldng of Science in Elementary Sclwols. 

 See Reports, p. 368. 



4. T/te Methods of Industrial Uemuneration} 

 By David F.'Schloss, M.A., S.C.L. 



An employee engaged on time-wage sells to his employer the labour performed 

 •within a given period, irrespective of the amount of this labour; if on task-wage, 

 he sells the labour performed within a given period, undertaking to produce within 

 that period a specified output ; if on piece-ifacje, he sells a specified amount of 

 labour (the amount necessary for the production of a specified output), irrespective 

 of the period within which this labour is performed. [Note that all forms of the 

 wage-system, whether express and primary reference be made to a time-basis or a 

 result-basis, are alike in effect based on a more or less definite standard of remu- 

 neration, i.e., a fixed ratio between time, output, and pay, the price per unit of 

 exertion tending to be the same, under whichever method the operative be 

 employed.] There is also the special method of proffressive war/es, under ■which 

 the employee, if his labour exhibits a specified degree of efHciency, obtains in 

 addition to his fixed or minimum time-wage or piece-wage & premium. 



Wages, if paid in respect of the labour performed by a man working ' single- 

 handed ' are individual wat/es ; if paid in respect of the joint labour of a group, 

 collective xvages. In addition to collective tn.sk-wage, collective jiiece-ioage, and 

 collective jirogressive wages we find the method of contract loork, under which 

 the lump sum paid as the price of the work done by the group is apportioned by, 

 first, deducting the time-wages of its subordinate members, and then paying to the 

 leading member or members out of the balance a piece-work remuneration varying 

 in amount inversely with the sum of these time-wages, and directlv with the speed 

 maintained by the group ; and the method of co-operative work, distinguished 

 from all other forms of collective wages by the fact that the price of the work is 

 apportioned, not by the employer, but by the members of the group themselves. 



Payment by results, whether piece-wage or progressive wages, applied to the 

 remuneration of the foreman or leader of a group sometimes induces a severity of 

 supervision objected to by the working-classes, who stigmatise as ' the siveating 

 sgsteni' many (though not all) cases in which workpeople, instead of being 

 employed under a time-wage foreman, are employed under a foreman or other 

 superintendent paid by results, or work under a ' sub-contractor,' i.e., a subordinate 

 employer. 



Under product-sharing, a system falling into desuetude, the employee is 

 remunerated by a share in the output or its value either in lieu of, or in addition 

 to, wages. Under the semi-co-operative method of jn-ofit-sharing the employee 



' The paper is published in Charity Organisation Beview, October-November 

 3892. 



