A fair day's wage for a fair day's work is an objective of the labor movement, trade unions and other workers' groups, to increase pay, and adopt reasonable hours of work. It is a

motto A motto (derived from the Latin , 'mutter', by way of Italian , 'word' or 'sentence') is a sentence or phrase expressing a belief or purpose, or the general motivation or intention of an individual, family, social group, or organisation. Mot ...

of the American Federation of Labor.

Critique

In 1881

Frederick Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
'' The Labour Standard''. He argued that workers exchange their full

labour power Labour power (in german: Arbeitskraft; in french: force de travail) is a key concept used by Karl Marx in his critique of capitalist political economy. Marx distinguished between the capacity to do work, labour power, from the physical act of w ...

for a day in return for the subsistence necessary to maintain them for a day: "The workman gives as much, the Capitalist gives as little, as the nature of the bargain will admit." He also points out that capitalists can force a better bargain as they can live off their capital, but workers, without reserves, will be forced to accept work at a less advantageous rate. As innovation continually replaces workers with machines, he argues, workers come to form an industrial reserve army. Further, he argues that the wealth of capitalists has been accumulated through the exploitation of workers. He ends up calling for the old motto to be buried for ever and replaced by another motto: "Possession of the Means of Work, Raw Material, Factories, Machinery, By the Working People Themselves." That critique was taken up by the

Industrial Workers of the World The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines general ...

, who embodied it in their preamble: :"Instead of the conservative motto, 'A fair day's wage for a fair day's work,' we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, 'Abolition of the wage system.'""Preamble to the IWW Constitution"
. Iww.org, Retrieved 2010-11-30.

References

*WP Quigley, 'Fair Day's Pay for a Fair Day's Work: Time to Raise and Index the Minimum Wage' (1995) Mary's LJ

External links

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
'' American political catchphrases Labour movement {{Trade-union-stub