The morning call., 1892-08-12
THE SLIDING SCALE.
The Plan OF Wage Payment In Iron ans
Steel Mills,


Steel Mills.
The sliding scale in operation in many iron
and steel plants is not generally understood.
A writer in the New York Sun thus explains
it: The way sliding scale works in other
businesses might be illustrated by taking
streetcar for example. The driver and con-
ductor are paid now by the trip or by the
day. Payment by the trip would correspond
to piece work and payment by the day TO
days wages. Ii, instead of either of these
methods, they were paid percentage of re-
ceipts, so that when the car took in So
worth of fares day they got $40 and when
it took in s. a day they only got 81. they
would be somewhat In similar position 10
their employers that the ironwork men are
when they agree to sliding scale Of wages.
Ii thes receipts of a streetear service were
high the men would be we'll paid; If the de-
;nand for rides en- strestcars fell, the men
would De poorly paid. The owners furnish
the plant; the men operate it, and the men
get certain fixed share of the returns from
the use of TIE plant.
slidpg scale usually has maximum
and minimum. The men and the owners
agree that under no circumstances shall the
pay by the piece be estimated ON lower
rrice than a certain minimum or on
higher price than fixed maximum. That
Is, that If the owners and the men agree
that the men shall not, under any eiTcum-
stances, be paid less than so much a ton,
they should get that minimum pay, no mat
ter how low the price of iron might fall in
the market: and in return for this conces-
sion OF the owners, If the price rises above
the maximum the owners will not CORE
spondingly have TO increase wages. Or, t.
apply the smile still further TO streetcar
companies. the owners might agree that
The wages should be based on tie receipts
of fares between SIS and S25 a day. When
the receipts were only 81 the men would
get as much pay as if the receipts were So
while il the receipts were $50 they would
get no more than if they were SIS.
A sliding scale of pay is one form of profit
sharing, as it gives the workman fixed
proportion of the selling price of the prod
uct. How that proportion shall be divided
is generally fixed by the workmen them
selves. WHAT tile owners consider most is
the total cost TO them per ton of labor. To
turn out the finished products NUM- Der of
different kinds of workmen are employed
and the sum total of their pay is the cost OF
labor TO the owners. That sum total the
owners naturally want to keep down ana
the workmen want to increase. Yet it
might be decreased without loss to the
majority OF the wOTkmen If in their dividing
it among themselves they should change
their own shares so that the reductions
would fall on the workmen in some depart
ment and not on the wOrkmen in Others
In the same way, If tn nanufs etulers,
in stead OF the wOrkmen'S associations
should prepare the detailed scale of wages,
they might make changes which would re-
duce the total cost of labor by decreasing
the pay of the high-prieed workmen with
out affecting the others.
1t has been customary In the iron and
steel business for the workman to be paid
on sliding scale. based on the price of
some standard article manufactured. Thi,
criterion may be steel rails. steel billets, pig
iron, or anything else of standard demand
in large quantities. Ii would be too CON-
plIeated 20 have separate sliding scale for
every article of manufacture. and some
standard article has been taken as the meas
ure of value of the others. though the prices
of the others may not and rarely do rise
and tall il exact ratio.
Both the manufacturers and the w0rkmen
adopted the sliding scale to prevent con-
slant labor troubles. The price of iron aud
steel products fuctuates greatly, and undei
system of pay by the day or piece the
workmen wefe constantly striking TO Ct
higher wages when the market price went
up. or 10 prevent reduction IN
wages when the market price fell.
The workmen did not think it was
fair that thew should be paid no
more when the price rose. and the manu-
facturers naturally sought to reduce wages
when the market price OF their product
fell. The result was succession of strikes
and iockouts, such events taking place al
almost every material alteration in the
market price.
1t was thus that the sliding scale came t.
be adopted. and It's workings, though by No
means wholly satisfactory, have been pro-
duetiye of fewer strikes than the old sys-
TEN. There rarely is trouble when the
market price is high as the manufacturers
profits increase at the same time the work
mems wages increase. Recently the market
price has been vibrating around the mint
mum of the sliding scale, and at she time @,
the Homestead lockout il was below tie
minimum, SO that the workmen were paid in
the scale higher than the market price OF
the product. TIE manufacturers sought To
lower the minimum so as to make the
workmen share in the reduction below the
N nimum market price of the scale. This
was one of the pointS of contention