> I've run into other problems about the value of my labor.
>
> Market people would argue that someone gets the wage they do
> because of
> something like the 'law' of supply and demand, more or less (even if
> academics have gone way past this, this is something I hear
> all the time).
> People who wash dishes or work in fastfood, for example, get
> paid the lowest
> because there are any number of people who could do the work, so the
> thinking goes. But if you've ever worked in a restaurant, you
> know that is
> not true at all.
>
> The management class on behalf of capital can hire any number
> of bodies for
> fastfood, but many can't do the work very well. Doing a good job at a
> restaurant was one of the hardest jobs I've ever done.
>
> Another low-paying job I had was security guard (though this
> one paid just
> above the minimum wage at the time, so 4 dollars an hour in
> 1988) . There
> was one shift I always had to pull because I could memorize
> the elaborate
> route the guard had to walk and drive through a mining pit
> and two factories
> (the idea was that you logged into all these stations
> scattered around so
> the company could certify to the insurance firm that there
> was someone there
> all the time and the place wouldn't explode or burn down
> without detection).
> Most at the security firm couldn't remember the route, were
> afraid of the
> machinery in the factories, or were physically incapable of
> completing the
> route on the hour for 8-10 hours. The guy who did the job
> before me was also
> attacked by intruders (apparently someone trying to steal
> explosives from a
> shed at the quarry--though I only saw racoons, opossums, deer
> and bears).
>
> My being able to do it only resulted in my pulling more work
> at that place,
> not higher wages or anything. If the job went unfilled, the
> company had to
> pay a higher insurance rate I presume.
>
> Here is another problem: I think the most valuable work I do now is
> volunteer work for a professional organization. Actually, among other
> things, I've spent many hours of my 'free' time (evening, weekends,
> vacations, etc.) writing and editing for several organizations'
> publications. The publications we produce are of a
> 'professional' quality.
> Yet I've never received a single payment for any of this. I
> do it because I
> CAN do it and because it is a challenge that I'm not going to
> get in my paid
> job.
>
> It's also easy to get sucked in. It's like I can't back down from the
> challenge of seeing a project through to success, even though
> I know I'm
> giving up huge chunks of my life for this unpaid work. Also,
> when it's time
> to volunteer, a group volunteer, then many don't do anything
> and cite their
> limited time, and then those who have the time often prove
> incapable of
> getting anything done without money as an incentive. The
> first time I was a
> bit surprised by this, but after a while the only thing that
> surprised me
> was when there was a NEW name among those who actually
> volunteered, stayed
> the course til the work came, and then actually got the work
> done well and
> on time.
>
> But what is the value of that labor or work or whatever? A
> lot of it, if a
> handful of people like me didn't do it, wouldn't get done.
> There is no long
> line of people wanting to do it, the line gets shorter when
> people find out
> the time committments, and then list of those who actually do
> something
> other than put an item on their re'sume' make the list very
> short indeed.
>
> How much work of value never gets valued in the economy at
> all (I don't care
> what sort of analysis, left, mainstream, liberal, whatever, it is.)
>
> Charles Jannuzi
Absolutely. I'm baffled by how work is valued.
Some labor is paid well and some isn't and it just isn't clear if there is any principle involved. Sometimes I get sarcastic and say if it's fun to do, somebody is going to do it and there is no need to pay you. You only get paid well for ulcers and heart attacks.
But a lot of woman's work isn't fun, and it isn't valued much (in terms of pay) either, as kelley points out.
-- John K. Taber