=3. Day Wage.= Of the three general plans on which labor is paid, the oldest and best known is the day─wage plan. It is the most widely used because best understood. The day─wage plan contemplates the payment of a stated wage for a stated unit of time. If all men performing the same task were equally skillful, or if the wage rate could be adjusted in conformity with the varying degrees of productiveness found in every body of workmen, the day─wage plan would be ideal. But neither of these conditions exists. Workers are liable to insist on the application of the rule of organized labor, that all men performing similar tasks shall be paid the same wage. Since all men are not equally skillful, this results in certain inequalities. On the one hand, the wage rate is based on the lowest rate of production, which is unjust to the more skillful man, who either reduces his productiveness to the level of the least skillful, or transfers his energies to another field of endeavor. As an opposite extreme, the rate is based on the highest rate of production, which is manifestly unfair to the employer. In actual practice, then, it is necessary, from the standpoint of the employer, to employ overseers to drive all workmen to a maximum rate of production, which, theoretically, means the elimination of all workers who are unable to attain the maximum. Again an injustice results, this time to the weaker man. =4. Piece Rate.= The first plan evolved, in the search for a plan that would remedy the inequalities of the day─wage plan, was the piece─rate plan. The piece─rate plan contemplates the payment of a stated wage per unit of production, without consideration of the rate of production. The argument was advanced that a uniform rate per unit of production would result in an equitable wage, because based on the productive skill of the individual. But the plan has failed in many cases to produce the desired results, for the reason that it does not take into consideration the factor of time. In the establishment of a wage rate, the factor of time must be considered, or the rate will not be equitable as between employer and employe. The employer must furnish the shop, the tools, the power, the heat and light. The cost of these items does not necessarily vary in direct ratio with the increase or decrease in production. These expenses must be absorbed by the finished product, therefore, even under a piece─rate plan, the rate of production (the factor of time) has an actual bearing on the rate per unit.