Wage in the context of "Incomes policy"

The working class refers to a group of people in a social hierarchy, typically defined by earning wages or salaries through their ability to work. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most common definitions of "working class" in use in the United States limit its membership to workers who hold blue-collar and pink-collar jobs, or whose income is insufficiently high to place them in the middle class, or both. However, socialists define "working class" to include all workers who fall into the category of requiring income from wage labour to subsist; thus, this definition can include almost all of the working population of industrialized economies.

A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages and benefits, improving working conditions and safety standards, establishing complaint procedures, developing rules governing the status of employees (including rules on promotions and just-cause conditions for termination), and protecting and increasing the bargaining power of workers.

Trade unions typically fund their head office and legal team functions through regularly imposed fees called union dues. The union representatives in the workforce are usually made up of workplace volunteers who are often appointed by members through internal democratic elections. The trade union, through an elected leadership and bargaining committee, bargains with the employer on behalf of its members, known as the rank and file, and negotiates labour contracts (collective bargaining agreements) with employers.

Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any other entity, pays the other, the employee, in return for carrying out assigned work. Employees work in return for wages, which can be paid on the basis of an hourly rate, by piecework or an annual salary, depending on the type of work an employee does, the prevailing conditions of the sector and the bargaining power between the parties. Employees in some sectors may receive gratuities, bonus payments or stock options. In some types of employment, employees may receive benefits in addition to payment. Benefits may include health insurance, housing, and disability insurance. Employment is typically governed by employment laws, organization or legal contracts.

Factor income (also called primary income and earned income) is the flow of income that is derived from the factors of production, i.e., the general inputs required to produce goods and services. Factor income on the use of land is called rent, income generated from labor is called wages, and income generated from capital is divided between profit for equity owner and interest for creditor. The total amount of factor income received by the residents of a country is referred to as the national income, while factor income and current transfers together are referred to as disposable income.

In contemporary national accounting, Indirect taxes minus subsidies are treated like factor income despite not meeting the definition. In earlier system like the 1953 SNAdefined to concept of GDP : the sum of all factor income called GDP at factor cost, and the sum of all expenditure called GDP at market price. (GDP at market price = GDP at factor cost + Indirect taxes minus subsidies). Factor cost measured have being abandoned by the SNA.

Price controls are restrictions set in place and enforced by governments, on the prices that can be charged for goods and services in a market. The intent behind implementing such controls can stem from the desire to maintain affordability of goods even during shortages, and to slow inflation, or alternatively to ensure a minimum income for providers of certain goods or to try to achieve a living wage. There are two primary forms of price control: a price ceiling, the maximum price that can be charged; and a price floor, the minimum price that can be charged. A well-known example of a price ceiling is rent control, which limits the increases that a landlord is permitted by government to charge for rent. A widely used price floor is minimum wage (wages are the price of labor). Historically, price controls have often been imposed as part of a larger incomes policy package also employing wage controls and other regulatory elements.

Although price controls are routinely used by governments, Western economists generally agree that consumer price controls do not accomplish what they intend to in market economies, and many economists instead recommend such controls should be avoided; however, since the credibility revolution started in the 1990s, minimum wages have found strong support among some economists.

Capital: A Critique of Political Economy (German: Das Kapital. Kritik der politischen Ökonomie), also known as Das Kapital (German: [das kapiˈtaːl]), is a foundational theoretical text in Marxist philosophy, economics, and politics by Karl Marx. His magnum opus, the work is a critical analysis of political economy, meant to reveal the economic patterns underpinning the capitalist mode of production. Das Kapital is in three volumes, of which only the first was published in Marx's lifetime (1867); the others were completed from his notes and published by his collaborator Friedrich Engels in 1885 and 1894.

The central argument of Das Kapital is that the motivating force of capitalism is in the exploitation of labour, whose unpaid work is the ultimate source of surplus value and profit. Beginning with an analysis of the commodity, Marx argues that the capitalist mode of production is a historically specific system where social relations are mediated by commodity exchange. He posits a labour theory of value, contending that the economic value of a commodity is determined by the socially necessary labour time required for its production. Under this system, the worker's capacity to labour (their labour power) is sold as a commodity, but its use-value—the ability to create new value—is greater than its exchange-value (the wage), allowing the capitalist to extract surplus value. This process drives capital accumulation, which in turn fosters technological change, the creation of a reserve army of labour, and a long-term tendency of the rate of profit to fall, leading to economic crises and intensifying class conflict.

A salary is a form of periodic payment from an employer to an employee, which may be specified in an employment contract. It is contrasted with piece wages, where each job, hour or other unit is paid separately, rather than on a periodic basis. Salary can also be considered as the cost of hiring and keeping human resources for corporate operations, and is hence referred to as personnel expense or salary expense. In accounting, salaries are recorded in payroll accounts.

A salary is a fixed amount of money or compensation paid to an employee by an employer in return for work performed. Salary is commonly paid in fixed intervals, for example, monthly payments of one-twelfth of the annual salary.

Wage labour (also wage labor in American English), usually referred to as paid work, paid employment, or paid labour, refers to the socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer in which the worker sells their labour power under a formal or informal employment contract. These transactions usually occur in a labour market where wages or salaries are market-determined.

In exchange for the money paid as wages (usual for short-term work-contracts) or salaries (in permanent employment contracts), the work product generally becomes the undifferentiated property of the employer. A wage labourer is a person whose primary means of income is from the selling of their labour in this way.

A blue-collar worker is a person who performs manual labor or skilled trades. Blue-collar work may involve skilled or unskilled labor. The type of work may involve manufacturing, warehousing, mining, carpentry, electrical work, custodial work, agriculture, logging, landscaping, food processing, waste collection and disposal, construction, shipping, and many other types of physical work. Blue-collar work often involves something being physically built or maintained. In social status, blue-collar workers generally belong to the working class.

In contrast, the white-collar worker typically performs work in an office environment and may involve sitting at a computer or desk. A third type of work is a service worker (pink collar) whose labor is related to customer interaction, entertainment, sales or other service-oriented work — particularly those service jobs that have been traditionally considered to be women's work, such as secretaries, nurses, teachers, early childhood educators, florists, etc. Many occupations blend blue, white, or pink-collar work and are often paid hourly wage-labor, although some professionals may be paid by the project or salaried. There are a wide range of payscales for such work depending upon field of specialty and experience.