Even with profits, rents and other
non-wage incomes brought under a
measure of control, however, the
problem will be far from solved.
There remains the complicated ques-
tion of wage differentials. Workers
whose pay is tied to productivity, by
some form of incentive bonus, can in-
crease their earnings by more than a
nationally negotiated increase in wage
rates. | No such possibility is open,
at present, to millions of workers such
as firemen, teachers and nurses whose “product” consists of services which cannot be expressed in terms of higher output. A rigid “guiding light” which ignored this and which ignored the fact that millions »of workers are, on any showing, scandalously underpaid would not deserve to be followed. These and related problems are not likely to be solved immediately, or within the lifetime of a single government. An incomes policy in the full sense is therefore unattainable until we have advanced much further along the road to socialism. An interim incomes policy, however, designed to secure a breathing space for our economy while it is being re-tooled and while the first steps towards economic planning and social justice are being taken, is possible and, moreover, indispensable. Considered as a holding operation the “Statement of Intent” on incomes, prices and productivity, which should be signed by representatives of trade unionists and employers before Xmas, should serve a modestly useful purpose. To a government which “shows willing,” which gives full weight to trade union opinions and which has its priorities right, the workers are likely to display a loyalty and an understanding which the Tories could never command. A 4% growth rate is not attainable without at least some degree of incomes planning. The rewards of a 4% growth rate, in terms of improvements in real wages, hours, working conditions and social services, would be enormous. The alternative implies the failure of Labour, the return of the Tories and back to the rat-race. It does not really bear thinking about.
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