FOREST LABOR 43 
Wage basis: — The wage basis prevailed for many years in all 
parts of the country and is still in common use to-day in the 
Northeast, the Lake States, the Appalachians, the South, the 
Inland Empire and on the Pacific Coast, although the piece-work 
and the contract basis have been extensively introduced in recent 
years. Formerly the wage included board, but in most regions 
laborers are now charged for board and in some cases for lodgings 
when superior accommodations are offered. Workmen are now 
seldom paid for lost time that is due to bad weather or to sickness. 
The straight wage system has come into disfavor because it tends 
toward inefficiency and waste, since there is little incentive for 
the average laborer to do more than is necessary to hold his job. 
Where it is still in use, the hour sj'stem is the more common, 
only skilled employees being hired by the month. Various sub- 
stitutes for the straight wage system have been devised, in order 
that workmen may be paid on the basis of the amount of work 
actuall}' and satisfactorily performed. 
Piece work : — This method of paying employees has been ex- 
tensively adopted by the lumber industry in all parts of the United 
States. In logging work it has been applied to felling and log- 
making, skidding and yarding, hauling, and laying and taking 
up steel on logging railroads. A form of bonus or premium 
plan has been introduced into the piece-work system in some parts 
of the country, especially in the Pacific Northwest. The most 
common application of this principle has been to yarding, 
although some firms apply it to nearly all forms of logging work. 
Most of these schemes have been founded on the general basis 
of a guaranteed minimum wage for a specified amount of work 
performed, called the "base," and the payment of a premium or 
bonus for all work over and above the base. 
In some camps the bonus plan is applied only to a few employees 
who are acting in a supervisory capacity. While this tends to 
make those to whom the bonus is offered more diligent in their 
efforts to increase output and reduce operating costs, it neglects the 
necessary stimulus to those who are ineligible. Such a system, 
therefore, seldom appeals to the workmen, because the ultimate aim 
is to secure more work from them without any pecuniary benefit. 
One bonus system^ which has been used for several years is 
^ Kjiown as the Brown's Bay System because it was first advocated on the 
West Coast by the Brown's Bay Logging Co. of Seattle, Washington. 
