A rational wages system

by Henry Atkinson

(f) Safeguards.

The time study is in itself an absolute safeguard against cutting times. It is quite impossible for a job to be done in less than a certain time by an average worker after all the elements have been studied and tested. So long as the elements do not change, the times must hold good, and a new study will confirm this if any doubt arises.

So that if the workers are all taking high rewards it is clear proof that they are of high efficiency.

Suppose a firm cuts the time with the object of getting more profit. One result is shown on p. 27. Another result is that the good workers will leave, because efficient men can always get good jobs elsewhere.

As a matter of fact, however, rates are practically never cut. It does not pay to cut rates, because if efficient men leave, and only inefficient men are left, the firm loses heavily, and their own time studies together with the general efficiency of the workers show how valuable their men are.

This is why the time study is a decided safeguard against cutting rates.

One method of rate revision sometimes occurs. When a job is found to be rated too highly from some cause or other, and the worker is taking excessive reward on that job, a change is made in the conditions of the work and the job is restudied. Two reasons are given for this procedure: first, that it is unfair to the other men for one man to be taking exceptionally heavy reward, and, second, under the new conditions the job is still on exactly the same basis as all other jobs in the factory, and standard efficiency with its proportionate reward can be made just as easily as in other cases.

There is another safeguard. The relation between standard and reward times is so arranged that when a worker reaches standard he gets at least 25 per cent. of the job rate. This is an accepted principle, and must be conceded always. It is an irreducible minimum in connection with the Reward System.

It may be said that, however much the principle is accepted, it does not follow that the employer will stick to it.

But he must! If he does not do so, what is the alternative? Either he gives less than 25 per cent. reward or he gives none until the standard time is reached. In the first case, if he gives less than 25 per cent., reward is not worth working for, and the worker will not trouble about it, thereby rendering the whole system useless. If the worker gets no reward until standard time is reached, the effort required by the men is so great in order to get reward that it is not worth it, and the men do not try for it.