Book Review: Guaranteed Annual Wages
| Author | H. D. Woods |
| Published date | 01 July 1946 |
| Date | 01 July 1946 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070204600100315 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
Book Reviews
critical
analysis
and
the
usefulness
of
his
books,
admirable
in
their
dis-
cussion
of
the
broader
aspects,
is
consequently jeopardized.
McGill
University,
February
1946.
John
P. Humphrey
GUARANTEED
ANNUAL
WAGES.
By
Jack
Chernick
and
George
C.
Hellickson.
1945.
(Minneapolis:
University
of
Minnesota
Press.
146pp.
$2.50
U.S.)
Public
interest
in
labour relations
is
currently
directed towards
the
strike
situation
incidental
to
the
transition
from
a
war
to
a
peace
economy.
Attention
to
the
principal
objectives
of
union
security
and
wage
increases
has
tended
to
obscure less
publicized
aims
such
as
guaranteed
annual
wages.
This small volume,
the
joint
production
of
an
economist
and
a
journalist,
serves
as
a
reminder
that
the fundamental
security
is
that
of
the
worker.
It
examines
a number
of
guaranteed
annual
wage
plans
in
operation,
considers
the
significance
of
these
plans
for
management
and
workers,
discusses
the
implications
with
regard
to
full
employment,
employment
stability,
and
economic
change,
and
outlines
the
general
social
advantages.
The
thesis
is
developed
that
with
the
exception
of some
highly
seasonal
industries,
work and
anxual
wage
stabilization
is
possible
and
has
been demonstrated
as
practical
by
a
number
of
firms
in
such
in-
dustries
as
meat
packing,
soap
manufacturing,
boot
and
shoe
production,
and
even
the
building
trades.
The
plans
have
not
been
easy
of
achieve-
ment.
Subsidiary
products
have
been
developed,
sales
policies
changed,
marketing
technique
transformed,
and
other
major
policies modified.
There
is
apparently
no
short-cut.
The
reaction
of
management
after
experience
with
the plans
is
very
favourable,
and
support
for
the
principle
now
comes
from
the
National
Association
of
Manufacturers.
However,
generally
speaking, manage-
ment
appears
to
be
indifferent
or
hostile;
consequently
this
form
of
worker security
has
not been
widely
accepted.
Initial
hostility
and
suspicion
of
organized
labour
are
now being
replaced
by
strong
support,
and
by
the
inclusion
of
guarantee
clauses
in
collective
agreements.
In
fact,
instances
are quoted
which
demonstrate
that
union support
may
be
necessary
to assure
success.
Adoption
of
guaranteed
annual
wage
plans
is
shown
to
be
consistent
with
the
social
interest
as
a
means
of
reducing
employment fluctuations,
providing
worker
security, and
promoting
satisfactory
industrial
relations.
There
is
evidence
that
factor
mobility
may be
increased
rather
than
diminished.
However,
state
compulsion
is
ruled
out
as economically
unsound
and
contrary
to
tradition.
The
use
of
state
power
of
taxation
to discriminate
in
favour
of
firms
guaranteeing
wages
is
approved.
The
experiment
of
"gingering
up" the
work
of
an
academic
by adding
a
journalist
is
of
dubious
value.
The
persistent interruptions
of
sound
descriptions
and analysis
by
interjected
popularizing
titles
and
sections
is,
to
say
the
least,
disconcerting.
Some economists
might
even
resent
the
implication
in
the publisher's
foreword
that
the
journalist
was
277
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