1. By law or government authority; either (a) fixing the minimum rate of wages, and leaving the variations above that point to be adjusted by competition (this, as we have seen, is the effect of the poor-law); or, (b) settling the rate of wages generally by means of local boards of trade for conseils de prud’hommes, consisting of delegates from the workmen and employers, to determine, by the principles of natural equity, a reasonable scale of remuneration in the several trades, their decision being binding in law on both the employers and the employed.
2. By public opinion; this has been generally proposed by those who are what Mr. Mill terms “shy of admitting the interference of authority in contracts for labour,” fearing that if the law intervened it would do so rashly and ignorantly, and desiring to compass by moral sanction what they consider useless or dangerous to attempt to bring about by legal means. “Every employer,” says Mr. Mill, “they think, ought to give sufficient wages,” and if he does not give such wages willingly, he should be compelled to do so by public opinion.
3. By trade societies or combination among the workmen; that is to say, by the payment of a small sum per week out of the wages of the workmen, towards the formation of a fund for the support of such of their fellow operatives as may be out of employment, or refuse to work for those employers who seek to give less than the standard rate of wages established by the trade.
B. The prohibition of stoppages or deductions of all kinds from the nominal wages of workmen. This is principally the object of the Anti-Truck Society, which seeks to obtain an Act of Parliament, enjoining the payment in full of all wages. The stoppages or extortions from workmen’s wages generally consist of:—
1. Fines for real or pretended misconduct.
2. Rents for tools, frames, gas, and sometimes lodgings.
3. Sale of trade appliances (as trimmings, thread, &c.) at undue prices.
4. Sale of food, drink, &c., at an exorbitant rate of profit.
5. Payment in public-houses; as the means of inducing the men to spend a portion of their earnings in drink.
6. Deposit of money as security before taking out work; so that the capital of the employer is increased without payment of interest to the workpeople.