9^ MANAGEMENT Of DAIRY PLANTS 



PAYING FOR LABOR 



Productive and Nonproductive Labor. — Productive labor 

 is the active manufacturing labor. In the creamery and ice 

 cream factory such labor is produced by the butter maker, 

 ice cream maker, and their subordinates and is charged 

 directly against the department in which they labor. The 

 superintendent of the manufacturing department will be con- 

 sidered under productive labor if he himself is engaged in the 

 work of manufacturing; if he is merely supervising the work in 

 the manufacturing department then his time will be considered 

 under the head of nonproductive labor. Nonproductive labor 

 includes the labor of clerks, bookkeepers, superintendents, etc. 

 It is noncreative labor, but it is required for making the organi- 

 zation more efficient. Such labor may be charged directly 

 against a definite department for such as are working for that 

 department exclusively, but usually the employees engaged in 

 nonproductive labor are working for more than one department 

 and their wages must therefore be proportioned among the 

 various departments. Such labor is often known as indirect 

 labor. 



Payment for labor may be according to one of several sys- 

 tems; the day-wage system, the piecework system, and the 

 premium system. 



The Day- Wage System. — This system provides for a def- 

 inite compensation per unit of time. It is the oldest of the 

 three systems mentioned, yet it has few advantages to its credit. 

 The employees, as a rule, are more particular and careful when 

 hired for day wages, as they are not so tempted to sacrifice 

 quality of work for speed. The disadvantages are mainly that 

 the employer must depend on the integrity and skill of the 

 individual workman and for that reason the standard of efli- 

 ciency for each employee is different and the manufactur-^r has 

 no fixed rate of cost per unit of labor. By making a difference 

 in the rate of wages between employees doing the same kind of 

 work dissatisfaction is created among the employees. This 

 system is entirely satisfactory where each employee has a def- 



