Guaranteed Annual Wages

Guaranteed Annual Wages was first published in 1945. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.

One of the last acts of President Roosevelt was to order a study of the guaranteed annual wage. The question that naturally arises in the mind of every thinking person is—what is the annual wage? What can it do for me? Is it economically feasible? Is it socially desirable? Will it work for the entire industrial structure as well as for individual firms within an industry?

Chernick and Hellickson in Guaranteed Annual Wages present an unbiased report showing to what extent the guaranteed annual wage contributes a solution to intermittent employment and indirectly to other forms of unemployment. Labor has followed the initiative of forward looking management in advocating guaranteed annual wages. Economists regard the guaranteed annual wage as a step toward full employment and the mass purchasing power so

essential to keep the wheels of industry turning.This book is the first substantial popular treatment of the annual wage in operation -- its effect upon the community, and how it relieves not only the wage earner but the homemaker from worry over the essentials of food, clothing, and shelter.

Chernick and Hellickson present the theory that the traditional wage system is obsolete and that, for the well-being of individuals and for society as a whole, it must be supplanted by a wage system that will make the operation of the economy more stable -- and that although the annual wage may not be a perfect system, it deserves a fair trial until something better is conceived.