The rise and fall of piecework

Robert Hart

World of Labour, 2016, No 254, 254

Abstract: A pieceworker receives a fixed rate for each unit (“piece”) produced or action performed. In part, the rate reflects a cost of monitoring output. A timeworker receives a fixed wage rate per hour that, in the short term, does not vary with output performance. From the 18th century up to the last third of the 20th century these were the two dominant payment methods in the manufacturing and production industries. Yet, today the incidence of piecework in advanced economies is very small, having lost considerable ground to time rates and to other forms of incentive pay. What caused this transformation, and has the movement away from piecework gone too far?

Keywords: piecework; timework; incentive pay (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 J31 J32 J33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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