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The article focuses on fringe benefit spiral. Too many excuses and too little homework have gotten employers into a benefit spiral that contributes to rising prices. More specific justification, more cost-benefit analysis and more regular reviews could slow it down without hurting employees. That benefits are substantial is documented biennially by the U.S. Chamber of commerce. For 1971, 885 employers reported an average payment amounting to 30.8% of payroll. The range was from under 15% to over 60%. In other terms, the figure was 122.3 cents per payroll-hour, or dollar 2,544 annually per employee. Highest average benefits were found in the Northeast, among larger firms and in the petroleum and finance industries. Over 97% of reporting firms provided vacations, holidays and insurance, while 33% paid for some kind of employee education, 20% furnished meals and 19% had profit-sharing plans. Even more meaningful is the continuing increase in benefits. For 137 specific firms surveyed over the years, the percent-of-payroll figure rose from 20.2 in 1951 to 34.4 in 1971, up 70% in 20 years.

This article provides an assessment of the impact of disability on the supply of labor. The definition of disability used here will be the same as that used in the 1967 Survey of Economic Opportunity, that is, a long-term, health-related impairment that limits a person's capacity to function in a job, at school, or while performing housework. Temporary conditions of ill health, such as a broken bone, the flu, or a sprained muscle, are not considered disabilities. If a person has two or more disabilities, the disability that he or she considers the more (most) important one(s) is designated a primary disability; the disability considered next in importance is designated a secondary disability. In addition, this study defines a long-term disability as one that has limited a person's capacity to function for at least twelve months. The basic model used in this study is a micro supply model, the theoretical formulation and properties of which are well known. At the foundation of this model is the basic choice between work and leisure. The results of the analysis indicate that the inclusion of measures of disability in labor supply models substantially alters a number of the results reported by labor economists.

The article discusses the surrogate measure for the firm's investment in human resources and considers the two major factors causing inter-firm wage differentials: employee training and indirect compensation. Employee training, including college courses, is borne by both firms and employees, and in cases in which it is paid by the firm, employees may expect below-average wages. Examples of wage differentials caused by indirect employee compensation include cases in which firms provide subsidized housing, health care benefits, education loans, and children's benefits for employees. The measure of a firm's investment in human resources is based on firm versus market wages. The firm's return on investment in human resources is the difference between the firm's actual wages and the market wage.

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service Code provides tax benefits to firms that maintain qualified profit-sharing plans. Of growing popularity among privately-held firms are discretionary plans, whereby the firm's contribution is not set by a fixed formula. The current paper develops a method for rationally determining the optimal contribution. The authors discuss conflicting interests among different kinds of employees that such plans must address, and illustrate their model with a numerical example.

Here is an answer to the need for a compensation plan closely tailored to management objectives, and to the abilities and needs of the individual salesman. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is management wasting a large portion of its payroll in unnecessary payments? Is it time to evaluate incentive systems for salaried employees in broader terms than cash payments alone? A first step is to find out how important "fringe benefits" or nonsalary compensation plans are in the minds of employees. The author reports on a study carried out to answer this and related questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the results of a study on the use of sales contests as an employee incentive to increase sales volume. The author notes that over four-fifths of the study's respondents reported positive results stemming from the implementation of sales contests. According to the author, different types of sales contests yield different results. Jackpot prizes awarded to the best performing salesperson cause many to stop trying as they feel the prize is out of their reach. The author suggests providing a prize for all sales personnel in the contest.

The article presents conceptual model of job enrichment design that can be used to identify, analyze and evaluate the organizational variables upon which successful application of job enrichment is contingent. Job enrichment, based upon the publicity it has received, has to be considered the leading contender for the crown "solution to motivational and productivity problems in industry." The concept is receiving extensive coverage in academic journals, business and professional periodicals, and the press. Job enrichment seminars are being conducted throughout the nation and are attracting high-level managers from leading business and governmental organizations. The problem encountered in any discussion of job enrichment is reaching agreement on what it is. The concept in a very short time has become all things to all people. During the last three years job enrichment has been associated with the four-day workweek, flexible hours, participative decision making and other human relations techniques, work simplification, job rotation, improved fringe benefits, particularly those that relate to working conditions and numerous other programs designed to increase job satisfaction and productivity. The authors contend that none of the above constitutes true job enrichment.

The article discusses the significance of subsidized community service. Employees should be given time off during regular working hours to help out on self-selected, community-service projects. Government should partly reimburse employers to make this possible. Since both private and public sectors would benefit, both should be willing to pay part of the bill. There are many compelling reasons why subsidized community service should be provided. It is also in business short and long-run self-interest to get more involved in society. Better educated, more highly skilled and cooperative employees will be the eventual result, because those helped will gradually acquire these desirable attributes. Benefits would accrue not only to individuals and to the employer, but also to society. Inter-sector rapport should improve, augmenting efforts already being made. The main objection to the proposal is, even with government help, the cost would be too great.

This article focuses on profit sharing plans. Article topics include why a company should offer its employees a profit sharing plan, why the employees request profit sharing and comply with certain arrangements. The effects of profit sharing is a motivated labor force which results in less wasted time and increased out-put and quality, it helps to attract and retain wanted employees, it provides a tax reduction, and it recognizes labor as more than a passive factor in the company's operation, causing labor relations to improve. Also discussed are the characteristics of profit sharing plans.

Three studies attempting to achieve convergence between different measures designed to assess need satisfaction in organizations are reported. Study I showed poor convergence between two measures of Maslow's concepts on a sample of 146 nurses. Study II showed poor convergence between Maslow and ERG measures in a sample of 217 bank employees. Study III showed some convergence where expected between Maslow and ERG measures for 522 employees in a life insurance company. Study III also showed some meaningful correlations between Maslow measures and the Job Description Index measure of job satisfaction and a high degree of convergence between ERG and JDI measures. Discussion of results from the different studies concerns the effect of differences in item format on construct intercorrelations and the need to know intermeasure convergence prior to making interstudy comparisons of results. It is suggested that the failure to find support for Maslow's need categories in organizational settings is due to: (1) an inadequate conceptualization which does not readily facilitate the development of operational indicators, and (2) the initial orientation of Maslow's theory which was not specifically aimed toward organizational settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Welfare bureaucracy in such developing countries as Mexico is expected to serve the goals of political stability and balanced development. In Mexico, the Social Security institute has served the former goal much better than the latter by formally representing the élites of important clientele groups. In setting up a micro political system like the Social Security institute, the Mexican government leaders encourage the representation of leaders of important groups but deny effective access to the rank and file. Clientele representatives, no matter their allegiances, share an élitist background. Moreover, in making social security policy, they tend to consult with each other through a consensual style of bargaining. By pursuing a strategy of achieving elite consensus the IMSS sacrifices its goal of promoting social change among those Mexicans who most need its services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Role diversity-operationalized by the number of relevant role senders-job level, subunit size, and company size are examined in this paper as determinants of perceived managerial satisfaction. Perceived need satisfaction, need fulfillment deficiency, need importance, and possibility of need fulfillment serve as the dependent variables. Role diversity and job level are found to be more significantly related to need satisfaction and possibility of need fulfillment than subunit or company size. Results are interpreted in the context of role theory and previous research by Porter. Administrative implications are suggested in the areas of reward system design and managerial motivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is concerned with the pattern of relationships between wages and so-called wage supplements in the construction industry in the U.S. Specifically, it analyzes the relationship between union wage rates and the union negotiated supplements, that is, employer contributions to union-multiemployer plans for health and welfare, for pensions, and for vacations. The analysis is based on data pertaining to thirty-four occupations in fifty-two cities. Most of the occupations represent the basic crafts of the building trades, like electricians, plumbers, laborers, etc. In addition, a number of them constitute some of the more specialized skills within the basic crafts. As is customary in construction, all wages and wage supplements were negotiated on an area basis. In most cases these areas are limited to a particular city, in others, they may cover several cities. Fringe benefits became an important part of the compensation of construction workers relatively recently. An important factor which contributed to the spread of fringes among cities has been the institution of the national union.

The article discusses the proposed plan for workmen's compensation and pensions for employees in the brewing industry in the U.S. The U.S. was the only country among the industrialized nations who failed to make a broad-based social insurance program of which nations such as Germany, England and other European nations had already adopted. Such program provides a secondary income distribution system which protects families from the consequences of old age, unemployment, sickness and industrial accident. With this, the United States Brewers' Association in 1910 had proposed to the United Brewery Workers International an unusual workmen's compensation and pension.

The article discusses the primary objective of the workmen's disability income system in the U.S. which is to provide a back up of the source of family income in cases where earnings are interrupted because of the employee's disability. The workmen's compensation is a program which offers benefits such as cash or medical care to victims of work-connected injuries. The injured employee may be paid in several ways such as public income-transfer programs or through private supplements like workmen's compensation, sick-leave pay or payments under a private insurance program. Although the workmen's compensation program was acclaimed to be an excellent way to deal with industrial injuries, it has been fired with controversy.

The article discusses the salary structure, as well as patterns and determinants of income, for engineering graduates. The data traces their earnings growth since graduation from a Canadian university with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. Regression analysis shows the impact of independent variables on income. Related factors such as the relationship between mobility and salary improvement are considered. A comparison is made of incomes for Canadian engineers, other Canadians, and U.S. engineers. Statistics from the 1960s indicate that starting salaries for graduates and mean earnings for experienced engineers were nearly identical to the corresponding measures for other engineering specialties. Fringe benefits are also mentioned.

The article describes and analyzes the evolving methods and concepts of wage fixation by public bodies in Australia. Wage problems are a prolific source of disputation and strife between employers and employees. The basic wage was regarded as a needs wage and as social in implication, being determined without reference to the market value or the nature of the work performed. The adoption of the total wage did not end the differentiation between male and female wage rates which has been a distinguishing feature of Australian wage regulation from early days.

The article presents a study that deliberates on the issue of social security expenditures. The argument runs that consumption expenditures should be minimized in the early stages of growth and that even modest social security programs would hinder rather than help the maximization of human welfare. The study presented in this article suggests that in approaching a determination of the role of social security expenditures in economic growth, it is essential to work in terms of a typology based on level of development. Among the highly developed nations, such expenditures may have little impact on output via productivity, whatever their desirability on other grounds. At the bottom of the development ladder, the pattern of factor proportions and organizational conditions may result in a low return to investment in human capital. It is at intermediate stages, where considerable capital has been put in place but the quality of labor lags behind, that the greatest potential for the use of social security measures as a development factor appears to exist.

The article deliberates on the issue of compensation being a sort of motivator for employees. Conventional wage and salary and benefits administration has reached the end of the road. It is a major source of dissatisfaction, disincentive, and friction between employer and employee. Even with the most competent administrators, this is true because conventional programs in these areas are vitiated by an inherent conceptual flaw — they accentuate the conflict between the individual employee's frame of reference and the employer's frame of reference. To the employer, the compensation program is an expensive device which enables him to — recruit and maintain a competent work force, denote the pecking order of various jobs, and motivate employees, by means of a judicious mixture of rewards and punishments, to give a superior performance and to develop their potentialities for higher things. The program in itself is neither good nor bad. It is an instrument-a technique-to be evaluated in terms of results, of purposes achieved, measured against costs incurred.

The article examines the circumstances and forms of adjustment to the particular needs of the individual plant of company within a bargaining unit and the plant or company subject to a strong well-defined wage pattern. Particular attention is focused on the dilemma of plant survival versus wage uniformity. When both are unobtainable, unions are forced to make agonizing choice. Their responses are analyzed through a survey of the literature on crisis bargaining. Terms like "multiemployer bargaining" and "wage pattern" convey a strong impression of centralized decision making and concomitant inability to accommodate the distinctive interests of individual plants and companies. "Multiemployer bargaining" and "pattern bargaining" both suggest imposition of identical terms on employers regardless of their varying economic and financial circumstances. Unions utilize a variety of techniques to accommodate to the particular circumstances of individual plants and firms while endeavoring to maintain wage and fringe benefit standards.

The article presents the author's reply to a commentary by Robert M. Macdonald which criticizes his article on fringe barrier theory and overtime behavior. There are assumptions involve in the discussion of the simultaneous existence of large amounts of overtime work and substantial unemployment. The author insists that he is least sympathetic to the assumption that there has been an increase in overtime worked relative to some measure of labor market conditions. Macdonald calls attention to a weakness in the method for calculating the cost of unemployment compensation. According to the author, he was concerned only with the impact of increases in fringe costs on the employment decision.

The article comments on an article by Joseph Garbarino which examined the fringe barrier theory. The theory states the increasing cost of fringe benefits had encouraged the greater use of overtime work. In testing the theory, Garbarino compares the cost of reaching an increase in man-hour requirement by working present employees overtime with cost of adding new employees. Garbrino's estimates of cost differential between fringe benefits and overtime vary widely depending on the assumptions one makes in determining fringe costs such as the cost of unemployment insurance.

The net gain (or net yield) bargaining model developed in this article evaluates benefit levels in terms of pain and pleasure functions (disutility or utility functions) or in terms of costs and revenue functions. The net gain or net yield functions take into account the positive and negative attributes associated with levels of benefits. Estimates of these functions are made by each party, both for their own functions and for those of their opponent. During the course of bargaining, as information is exchanged, as awareness of the environment develops, and as strategy and tactics are employed, these estimates of the functions undergo change. The result of pressures generated in bargaining forces the parties to alter the positions of net gain (or net yield) functions from a zone of conflict to positions which define a zone of agreement. Since it may take the use of the ultimate weapon, the strike or the lockout, to bring about a zone of agreement, this theory of bargaining encompasses industrial warfare within its framework. A measure of bargaining power is given by the ratio of the change in net gain or net yield functions of the parties. The conditions for settlement are that both parties must believe, at the benefit level under consideration (which has been successively approximated), that no other benefit level will give each of the parties a positive net yield (or net gain) and that no party can alter the functions to his advantage through bargaining tactics. Other bargaining models such as those of Pen, Chamberlain, or Stevens also contribute to an understanding of the bargaining process. However, according to the criteria by means of which a theory of bargaining may be evaluated, these models are less comprehensive in the insights which they provide. Models of bargaining can help us understand the nature of the bargaining relationship, and it is on this basis that bargaining models must be evaluated. Just as with economic models, there are statistical problems associated with the measurement of the variables contained within the bargaining model. The primary problem of the author's bargaining theory seems to be the difficulty (1) of establishing a quantifiable functional relationship between the variables and some monetary measure in order that the parties may estimate net yields, and (2) of measuring the impact of strategy and tactics on altering these functions. The contribution of bargaining theory to bilateral monopoly theory is that it provides a determinate solution to the terms of the bargain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the impact of pension legislation on the Chilean labor market. Excessive social security legislation, particularly pension legislation, has become a characteristic of dualism and a force perpetuating the dual economy. Pension legislation is also considered as a factor responsible for stagnation and inequality in the labor market. The Chilean social security system is different from that of the U.S. Instead of one governmental institution, there are several autonomous Cajas de Prevision which are indirectly subject to government control. Each Caja has its own policy regarding contributions, investments and retirement benefits.

There is currently wide concern over the employment impact of overtime and of the cost of "fringe benefits." The data on overtime worked and the role of fringe costs in employment decisions are examined in this study. The analysis suggests that there is no distinct upward trend in overtime, and that the usual method of supporting the argument that there is a "fringe barrier" to expanded employment is insufficient and in need of refinement. It is concluded, how ever, that the entire system of financing our economic security programs, public as well as private, may need to be reexamined on an integrated basis and with its employment consequences in mind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As this note is being written, a proposal to provide health insurance to retired workers under Social Security—the Forand bill—is being vigorously debated. Although health care for such workers involves some special considerations, the arguments of the proponents of this bill and the massive support being marshalled for its passage are symptomatic of general concern over voluntary health insurance. The dilemma threatening the survival of many of these voluntary programs is that costs tend to outstrip their ability to provide the quantity and quality of health care demanded by the groups they serve. In this discussion, the authors attempt to identify the major problems currently at issue in voluntary health insurance and to describe and appraise some administrative innovations that have been made in a few instances to control costs and improve the quality of medical and hospital care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents news briefs related to industrial relations in the U.S. as of July 1959. In relation to the 20th anniversary of the California Institute of Technology, the Industrial Relations Section has featured several articles about employee-benefit costs in its publications. The National Manpower Council will publish the journal entitled "Government and Manpower." Duke University has received a grant from the Ford Foundation.

In this article one of the country's foremost authorities on social security undertakes a basic reappraisal of our federal old-age insurance system. He points out that, although there is substantial consensus on the accomplishments to date of OASDI, there is little agreement as to what the future goals of the system should be. He offers several proposals for improving OASDI in the immediate future and also suggests a definition of the program's ultimate objectives in terms far more concrete than are usually employed. Finally, he demonstrates the need for re-evaluating the balance which should be struck in OASDI between the principles of "equity and adequacy" and points to opinion surveys as an important but neglected tool by which to measure benefit adequacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses unemployment insurance for agricultural workers in Hawaii. Several deviations from Hawaii's industrial law covering unemployment compensation benefits for agricultural workers include: disqualification of workers who voluntarily quit or commit misconduct in the job, exclusion of seasonal pineapple workers, deduction of pension payments from an employer and social security benefits from unemployment benefit payment. Those employees with agricultural and industrial wages will receive full benefits and supplementary benefits.

The enormous expansion of employee benefit programs in the last decade and recent disclosures of varying kinds and degrees of careless or fraudulent management in their operation have aroused widespread public concern over the need for regulatory legislation. This article analyzes the findings of the several governmental investigations of welfare and pension programs and makes suggestions as to the needed elements in a system of federal regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collective bargaining in Italy is undergoing a significant shift, away from the traditional industry-wide negotiation between national unions and employers' associations toward individual plant bargaining by local unions. The deficiencies of centralized authority and lack of representation by unions at the local level are analyzed in this article, which discusses the factors which have caused the labor confederations to reappraise their policies and endeavor to establish a network of shop locals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From time to time, proposals have been made to change the method of financing of old-age, and survivors insurance, presumably without modification of other elements such as the eligibility requirements or benefit-earnings relationships. In this article, the author discusses the extent to which the method of financing and other elements of a system of old-age pensions are interrelated. Some current proposals for modifications in the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance law are then critically evaluated in the light of that discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the employee fringe benefit policies in the U.S. in January 1954. According to the essay, World War II has threatened the improvements in fringe benefits. In this regard, the Wage Labor Board of the country developed policies regarding individual case decisions on fringe benefit issues. The move of the Board was triggered by the calls of employees for a variety of minor fringe adjustments. Hence, the regulations created by the Board also features several miscellaneous fringe adjustments.

As our provisions for economic security expand to cover more risks and more people, the American social security "system" grows increasingly complex. Much has been written on the relationships — actual and theoretical — between public and private pension programs, but only scanty information is available on the relationships between private health, welfare, and pension plans and our oldest social security program, workmen's compensation insurance. There are good reasons for this lack of information. Workmen's compensation has well-developed traditions of separatism. It functions under the aegis and direction of insurance companies, physicians, and attorneys. Until recently, compensation issues have received limited consideration from economists, political scientists, and industrial relations specialists. This paper, therefore, proposes to do two things: (1) It will describe and analyze some of the private plan provisions which are supplementing, duplicating, or perhaps undercutting state workmen's compensation plans and benefits. (2) It will discuss the implications these private provisions may have for the future of workmen's compensation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article emphasizes the need to review and reevaluate the condition of the United States' workmen's compensation laws, the causes contributing to their decline, and the possible paths to reform. Workmen's compensation is considered as one of the great advances in workers' security. It promised an assured benefit for every employee injured as a result of employment. Medical care and cash benefits are included in the compensation package. The social policy toward work injuries in the U.S. has changed, transforming the nature of compensation from an insured right to a quasi-relief benefit.

The article discusses the development of workmen's compensation in the U.S. in 1913. The program was considered as a hopeful symbol of progressive labor legislation. According to its proponents, among the many advantages of the workmen's compensation system were: assurance of predetermined, adequate, and prompt benefits; elimination of wasteful litigation; certainty of the means of payment through insurance; promotion of industrial safety and health; adequate medical care and rehabilitation of the injured worker.

This article discusses the experience of the pioneer collectively bargained program in the automobile industry, the Kaiser-Frazer UAW-CIO Social Security Program. It was said that the reorientation of the plans under the joint influence of labor and management is one of the most important consequences of the impact of collective bargaining. The program offers significant insights into the potentialities and limitations of workers' security programs and of voluntary health insurance plans. Its planning, development, and administration by a board of trustees on which labor and management are equally represented is important in the field of industrial relations. It was found that employee benefit plan in operation from 1946 to 1948 suffered from the shortcomings and limitations of group insurance at Kaiser-Frazer.

The article presents an economic analysis of the employee benefit programs in the U.S. The authors examined the economic ramifications of an expansion of benefit programs in the country. They analyzed the relationship between benefit programs and the country's general wage policy. They also examined the major elements of a sound wage stabilization policy proposed by the Council of Economic Advisers. The authors believe that employee benefit plans should be improved and expanded at the present time. They called for an increase in employer contributions to employee benefit plans. They conceded that prediction of the economic impact of an expansion of health, welfare and pension plans is a difficult task and that the actual cost of all benefit programs in the country is difficult to determine.

The article presents letters from Allen W. Rucker, president of Eddy-Rucker-Nickels Co., and Solomon Barkin, research director at Textile Workers Union of America, regarding the Rucker Share-of-Production Plan. Rucker criticizes Barkin for his misrepresentation of the Rucker Share-of-Production Plan. Barkin claims that the plan is a profit-sharing plan and that corporate management has generally rejected the program. He likewise states that the purpose and operation of the Rucker Share-of-Production Plan is to replace the current wage system in the U.S. He also illustrates the impact of the plan on employees. Rucker, on the other hand, contends that the Rucker Share-of-Production Plan is not a profit-sharing plan and that it does not aim to replace the country's wage system. He likewise reiterated the elements and scope of the plan.

The article focuses on the exclusion of nonunion members from employee benefit plans in the U.S. Section 302(c)5 of the Labor Management Relations Act allows contributions by an employer to a trust fund established by a union for the sole and exclusive benefit of the employees of such employer and their families and dependents. In the case Upholsterers' Inter. Union v. Leathercraft Furn. Co., the court ruled that the phrase for the sole and exclusive benefit of the employees did not mean that all people associated with the business must be included and that a valid fund is possible although its benefits were restricted to a portion of the total staff.

The article focuses on the changes in the old-age and survivors insurance in the U.S. from 1935 to 1950. The purpose of old-age and survivors insurance is to protect workers against wage losses resulting from retirement or death. The original act in 1935 only covers old-age insurance, in 1939 when it was amended, the program was extended to include protection for dependents and survivors. In the 1950 amendments several changes were made to the act such as the benefits for dependents and survivors and the provision of lump-sum payments.

The article examines the legislative history of the Social Security Act amendments of 1950 in the U.S. Some of the amendments include the provisions of the Internal Revenue Code and the creation of new subchapters of the Internal Revenue Code. The elements that characterize the social security legislation include the infrequency of basic legislation and the length of time it takes to obtain passage of legislation. The report of the Advisory Council on Social Security appointed by the Senate Committee on Finance in the 80th Congress contributed to the passage of the bill.

The article focuses on the attitude of labor unions in the U.S. toward medical care or health insurance. The two leading labor unions, the American Federal of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations, support a national social insurance system with provisions for medical care. These two major labor unions have supported congressional bills which aim endorse such a program. This attitude of labor unions signifies their intention to focus on improving the welfare of their membership in the areas of medical care. They want a program that is broad in scope.

Profit sharing is an economic tool that deserves careful study. But while profit sharing presents many useful opportunities to achieve a more stable economy, there are many economic, legal, and tax problems which must not be overlooked. When we talk about a profit-sharing plan, what is meant is a plan to distribute the profits of an organization among its employees in cash, annually or more often. When we talk about a profit-sharing trust or a trusteed plan, what is meant is a plan to place a share of the profits of an organization in trust for the benefit of its employees. Out of this trust fund distributions are made to members after a stated period of time, at death, retirement, in the event of sickness or disability, during economic crises, or the like. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the postwar period of labor unrest considerable attention has been focused on profit-sharing plans as a remedy for current industrial relations ills. Proponents of the idea insist that strikes and low productivity are twin symptoms of an internal maladjustment. The real trouble, they say, lies in the worker's fear of insecurity and his belief that he is being exploited. The solution, so runs the argument, is to hitch the wage earner's interest to the employer's profits. Both thereafter will work together in peace and harmony. And, indeed, this has been the experience in isolated cases; but most schemes have been far less successful. They have failed to show even the most elementary common sense in deyising means to create greater worker interest in the welfare of the enterprise. In a quick check of its records the National Industrial Conference Board reports that of 161 profit-sharing plans surveyed in 1937, about 60 per cent had been abandoned. The Board warned employers against too quick judgment on the advisability of following the profit-sharing movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This appraisal will deal primarily with wage incentive plans, defined to include all programs which relate workers' earnings immediately, directly, and continuously to their output. Not included in this discussion are wage bonus plans which link earnings with plant profits, volume of business, attendance, or any other factors, or other types of financial or nonfinancial plans. These frequently may be more effective than wage incentive plans in securing higher output, but their complexities are such that they fall outside the range of this discussion. A full wage program must consider them, however, before it is finally set. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contemporary institutionalization of business management developed through the convergence of an indeterminate number of distinct movements of thought and action, from which collective standards for the solution of management problems emerged within particular industries or sectors of the business population. The works management movement, from which arose the profession of industrial engineering and its best-known variant, Taylorism, can be studied from engineering and trade journals and the proceedings of engineering societies. It aimed at reducing costs in the machinery industry by systematic shop control and by worker benefits calculated not only to yield co-operation but to encourage moral improvement in the men. An innovative decade, 1895-1904, was followed by broadened application of the approach and the rise of specialists who took a long step toward the institutionalization of management by the formation of several quasi-professional associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the effect of pension contributions on other individual saving or other forms of retirement saving. The author builds upon previous research by Cagan and Katona that indicated pension contributions do not reduce other savings, in fact, participants had greater savings rates than those that did not contribute. However, the author's research indicates this is only partially true. This study indicates that certain income ranges do substitute pension contributions for alternative forms of retirement saving. Pension saving may be complemented by other retirement saving only in the highest income classes.

The article looks at the changing role of banks in the equities market. Observations on the nature of personal wealth and the U.S. economy are used to make conclusions on stock ownership. As a result of developments such as the Smathers-Keogh Law and internal gains in efficiency through further development of collective investment funds and interbank participations, the author predicts an increase in the rate of growth of personal trusts. The nature of the wealth of people purchasing trust services is notably reflected in the growing proportion of equities in the assets of bank trust departments.