It will be argued, at a later point, that under any economic system in
which labor organization is an accepted part of the economic structure,
the wage levels established in different industries or occupations will
have to be brought into relation with each other.[108] If that is so,
the level of standardization of any industry or occupation would be
determined in accordance with these principles, after they had been in
operation for some time. As a matter of fact, however, under any policy
of wage settlement, the enforcement of standardization will be something
of an independent and prior process--prior, that is, to the application
of any other principles intended to keep the wage levels in different
industries or occupations in relation to each other. Standardization
will be, so to speak, an initial stage of policy to be gone through
before any other stages are entered upon. In this initial stage, the
principal data that should be taken into consideration when fixing the
level of standardization for any occupation is the actually existing
variety of wage rates for that occupation. Where in the scale of
actually existing rates the level of standardization is set must be a
matter of judgment and compromise. That level of standardization should
be chosen, which it is believed will produce more good and less harm
than any other level that might be chosen. Or in other words, the level
of standardization should be determined by a balance of the interests
involved--that point being chosen at which, it is judged, the most
favorable balance is established.
There is current, indeed, one doctrine of standardization which holds
that there is but one satisfactory level of standardization for an
occupation in which wages have been hitherto unstandardized. That
doctrine, crudely stated, is that the standard wage for the work in
question should be the highest of the unstandardized wages.[109] That
doctrine is called "standardization upward."
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