Dilemmas of the labour bargain in the world of the future

Abstract

The labour bargain is an exchange between a worker and an employer in which the worker undertakes to perform various acts specified by the employer, usually within a given time period, and the employer pays the worker a wage, usually in money, though it may partially be in other goods and services. What the labourer does is work; what the employer gives is a wage. Occasionally we find work exchanged for work — I may, for instance, work for my neighbour for a day on his house and he may come and work for a day on mine — but this is a minuscule part of economic life. The ordinary labour bargain is a very large part of it. In most developed societies, for instance, wages, salaries, and other income from the labour bargain constitute approximately three quarters of the total national income. Even in the communist¹ countries it is far and away the largest source of personal income.