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 language, Latin , 'mutter', by way of Italian language, Italian , 'word' or 'sentence') is a Sentence (linguistics), sentence or phrase expressing a belief or purpose, or the general motivation or intention of a ...

of the

American Federation of Labor The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutual ...

Critique

In 1881 Frederick Engels criticised the slogan in the first issue of '' The Labour Standard''. He argued that workers exchange their full

labour power Labour power (; ) is the capacity to work, a key concept used by Karl Marx in his critique of capitalist political economy. Marx distinguished between the capacity to do the work, i.e. labour power, and the physical act of working, i.e. labour. ...

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

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

, who in Value, Price and Profit said: :"Instead of the conservative motto, 'A fair day's wage for a fair day's work!' they ought to inscribe on their banner the revolutionary watchword: 'Abolition of the wage system!'"

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

A Fair Day's Wages for a Fair Day's Work
by

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.American political catchphrases Labour movement {{Trade-union-stub