PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 
684 
4. -A LIVING- WAGE. 
By Rev. REGINALD STEPHEN, M.A. 
The terra “ a living wage” is an unfortunate one, for it suggests 
a wage which just enables the worker to live — a bare subsistence wage. 
The real meaning of the expression is rather a wage which will enable 
the ordinary working man to live in* decency and comfort, according 
to the standard of life for liis class, or as one writer puts it — “the 
ordinary rate of wage which the ordinary workman has earned in 
ordinary times.” ( 
It is now proposed that for each trade this shall be, for a certain 
period, the fixed minimum rate of wage; the rate to be reconsidered 
at the end of the period. The proposal has been rapturously received 
by the working classes ; it has been formally accepted as a desirable 
step by certain philanthropic bodies; and it has been advocated by 
some of the leading economists in England. We may then try to 
trace its probable economic effects at the present day. 
Two cases must be distinguished. Upon the ordinary worker in 
ordinary times the guarantee of the ordinary rates would have little 
effect. It would simply mean telling him that so loug as he had 
employment he would be sure of receiving the same rate as he received 
at present. So long as he had employment, he need not fear sudden 
variations, except at the end of the fixed period. II is only gain would 
be a slightly increased sense of security. 
But in the case of inferior workmen, or in bad times, the proposed 
scheme would have a very different effect. To give the average rate 
of wages to a man whose powers were below the average, would 
generally mean to give more than has been earned. So to give in bad 
times, when prices are low, the same rate as in good times, would 
generally mean to give more than has been earned. The living wage, 
as defined above, has not in such cases been produced by the worker’s 
labour, and yet it is paid to him. There must be an economic loss. 
The loss will not be quite so great as might at first sight appear, for 
the payment of liberal wages will stimulate and increase production, 
even by the inferior workers. But some loss there must be. And 
this loss falls upon the employer of labour. His profits are corre- 
spondiugly diminished. 
A most desirable result may be the verdict of the worker who 
compares his living wage with the supposed income of the employer. 
But other and less desirable consequences follow. Even in good 
times some employers cannot bear any decrease of profits, and in bad 
times nearly all are dangerously near the margin of non -profitable 
enterprise, certainly in no condition to bear an extra loss from the 
payment of too high wages. And if these wages must be paid, the 
only resource is to stop the business and discharge the men. It is 
impossible to for«e employers to pay a higher rate of wages than their 
business will bear. Any attempt to do so must lead to a contraction 
of industry, and consequent decrease of employment. 
The effect, then, of guaranteeing “ a living wage” to inferior men, 
or in bad times, will be to increase the number of the unemployed. 
But this effect is in many cases not only foreseen but desired, on the 
ground that it will make the social problem easier to deal with. The 
