Labor is a process of conscious purposeful activity of people aimed at creating the goods they need. The labor process is associated with the expenditure of human energy, muscles, intelligence. By the nature of these costs, labor can be divided into physical and mental. Physical labor is characterized by the expenditure of mainly physical, and mental - mental energy.
Such costs are considered by economic theory as an expenditure of human labor. Labor is understood as a person's ability to work - physical and professional ability. This means that in order to work, one must have a certain minimum of health and professional skills. Professional skills imply that a person has the information necessary for this work and the ability to use it in the labor process. Such information is needed, since labor is always concrete - this is the labor of a turner, salesman, doctor, teacher - and it requires specific knowledge and skills necessary for the manufacture of some thing or the provision of a service, which, prior to the labor process, must exist in the head of an employee in the form information image.
Labor power exists before the process of labor, which is a function of labor power, begins. Since the labor force contains potential labor, it can be considered as a labor resource, and the working population of the country with its entire totality of labor forces as the labor resources of society.
On a society-wide scale, labor resources are represented by that part of the country's population that is capable of work, i.e. possesses a labor force. This means that only part of the population represents labor resources.
In modern society, the main criteria for including people as carriers of the labor force in the labor force are age, health status and willingness to work. A person can be included in the labor force if he is of working age and in working condition. However, the specific content of the concepts of "working age" and "working condition" in different countries may be different.
If we turn to the first concept, then it means the age of a person at which he can be a subject of labor as a factor of production. This age has lower and upper boundaries, which are different in different countries.
The lower bound in many countries depends on the content of labor, the education system and labor legislation. If work prevails, which does not require great knowledge, then education can be reduced to the transfer by parents of their work experience to children, while if there is no prohibition on child labor, then the working age can start early. If the work of children is prohibited in the country, while difficult work prevails, then there is a need for compulsory secondary and vocational education and the working age begins relatively late.
The upper limit of the working age in modern conditions mainly depends on the legislation that determines the retirement age. In many countries it starts at the age of 65. Some countries have laws according to which a retired person must not work. In other countries, such as in Russia, pensioners are allowed to work, so that the working age of individuals depends on their working condition. The working condition is characterized by physical and mental capacity. On the one hand, this capacity depends on the state of health, and on the other, on the requirements that production makes to work as a factor. It is obvious that the patient is in an incapacitated state, but not every physically and mentally healthy person can be considered capable in those jobs that require special qualifications and exert such a load on the body that not everyone can withstand. That is why, when considering labor as a factor of production, it is necessary to refer to its qualitative and quantitative characteristics.
Qualitative characteristics of labor reflect the level of qualifications of workers. At this level, there is a general division of workers into skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers.
Skilled workers include workers whose training and preparation required a considerable amount of time, who have mastered a lot of information and are able to carry out complex, not so much physically, as intellectually, labor operations. This category includes professional workers classified as civil servants in Russia: teachers, doctors, lawyers, economists, government officials who have undergone long-term general and professional training and are carriers of significant information necessary to carry out complex work.
Semi-skilled workers include workers whose training did not require a long time and who, having a limited amount of information, are able to perform labor operations of average complexity.
Unskilled workers are considered workers who perform work that does not require special training. As a rule, training in the necessary labor operations and obtaining the information necessary for this occurs in the process of labor itself, as the labor of excavators.
The qualifications of workers are reflected in the degree of complexity of their work. Unskilled labor is considered simple, and skilled labor is considered complex, as it were, raised to a level of simple labor, or simple labor multiplied by the corresponding coefficient of complexity. A skilled worker can be distinguished from an unskilled worker by their ability to substitute. A more qualified employee can replace an unskilled one at his work, but the opposite is impossible. For example, a design engineer can sell cigarettes, while a kiosk can not design a car. The use of skilled workers in unskilled jobs means the irrational use of labor as a factor of production.
The progress of society is manifested in an increase in the share of the costs of skilled labor and a decrease in the share of unskilled labor. Moreover, together with the professional growth of a person, his general development also proceeds. The reverse process indicates economic and social regression.
Achieving and maintaining a certain level of qualification of the working population is an important component of the reproduction of the aggregate labor force as a resource. It requires the presence in the country of preschool education, vocational education and - all those institutions of society that provide the phase of production of labor. It is also important for society to distribute the workforce among those industries and enterprises that are in need of it.
In the phase of consumption of labor, the quantitative characteristics of labor as a factor of production are manifested, since they represent the cost of labor. The dependence of production results on labor costs requires taking into account the factors affecting these costs.
Within a country, such cargo costs primarily depend on the number of employed workers. The unemployment of a part of the working population in social production, the presence of unemployment in the country means a decrease in the amount of labor as a factor of production. The costs of individual and aggregate labor are affected by the length of the working day: and weeks; as well as vacations. The working day is the time of day during which the labor process takes place. The work week is determined by the number of working hours per week.
The working day and the working week characterize the working time - the time during which the labor process takes place. Non-working days appear as weekends. They usually fall at the end of the week. Non-working days, usually set once a year while maintaining average earnings, are considered holidays. An increase in the duration of vacations leads to a reduction in labor costs,
Labor costs are also influenced by its intensity. Intensity is understood as the intensity of labor, measured by the expenditure of human energy per unit of time. More intensive work involves, with other factors being the same, higher labor costs.
The factors considered are closely related to each other: the lack of one factor can be compensated for by another. From the point of view of social production, underemployment of the working population can be compensated for by an increased duration of working hours or the intensity of labor of workers. An increase in labor intensity can compensate for a shorter working day and vice versa. A similar relationship exists between the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of labor as a factor of production. Thus, the work of a semi-skilled worker can give the same result in the form of a good and its usefulness as the work of a qualified worker, if it is longer or more intensive. And this is despite the fact that skilled labor gives a much greater result per unit of time at the same intensity than semi-skilled labor.
The ratio of the result of labor in the form of a produced product to its costs in the form of human energy characterizes its productivity. The increase in productivity allows for a given labor input per unit of time to produce more products. Labor productivity depends on a number of factors that can be divided into subjective and objective.
Subjective factors include everything that is directly related to a person as a subject of labor. First of all, this is his qualifications. Skilled labor per unit of time creates more benefits than unskilled labor. Another such factor is labor cooperation. Its organization plays an important role in ensuring labor productivity. Labor organization should exclude unproductive expenditures of employees' efforts, ensure a responsible attitude to work; arouse employees' interest in the results of their work.
The objective factors of labor productivity include changes in the material factors of production - in land and capital, acting as objects of labor. For example, replacing a less fertile plot of land with a more fertile one allows you to increase the yield with the same labor costs. Equipping workers with machines leads to an increase in production volumes even with a reduction in labor costs. Here you can see that the action of objective factors leads to the fact that they replace labor as a factor of production. In this case, the same patterns are manifested as in the replacement of land. The substitution of capital for labor can cause an increase in returns from each additionally involved unit of capital up to a certain point, after which the return begins to fall, i.e. the effect comes into play - diminishing returns on capital as a factor of production.
Subjective and objective factors affect labor productivity in close interaction with each other. You can talk about the net productivity of a particular factor of production. The net productivity of the personal factor of production characterizes the productive power of labor, which exists alongside the productive power of land or capital. In general, productivity is determined simultaneously by several factors: if an enterprise replaces old equipment with new ones, then these changes may not ensure productivity growth unless there are corresponding changes in the work of servicing the equipment. So productivity growth here is determined not only by capital, but also by labor.
In the commodity economy, labor is both public and private. The first feature of labor is associated with its specialization and the corresponding division of labor of commodity producers. The labor of individual producers appears as a part of social labor that creates a social product. It is labor to satisfy the needs of other people, that is, labor for society.
In this case, the labor of one producer turns out to be connected with the labor of others, which characterizes the socialization of labor. Thanks to the socialization of labor, the economy turns into a single national system, called the national economy in economic theory. So the systemic nature of the economy, its national economic character is ensured by the socialization of labor, conditioned by the development of commodity production.
The second feature of labor is that it acts as the labor of isolated, economically independent commodity producers, has a private character.
This nature of labor is based on private ownership of capital as a factor of production and of the commodity produced. It stipulates that the production of this or that commodity is a private affair of the owner of capital as a commodity producer. Only the market, through the purchase of a commodity, recognizes the labor of its producer as social labor - labor for society. But the manufactured product may not be bought on the market, which means that it is not recognized by society. In this case, the labor invested in it remains private.
The next characteristic feature of labor in commodity production is its subordinate position in relation to capital. This is due to the fact that it is the ownership of capital as a factor of production that determines the ownership of the produced goods, and it is the owners of the goods, including money as an equivalent commodity, that are the subjects of the market. The lack of capital also makes it impossible to enter the market with the manufactured goods. In this case, the only commodity that can be sold is a person's ability to work, that is, labor power. The buyer of such a product becomes the owner of capital large enough to attract additional labor to ensure its functioning.
Labor in the system of socio-economic relations can be free or hired.
Free is the labor of capital owners, who themselves determine the working conditions, its intensity and duration. The commodity nature of production determines such a feature of this labor as its unity with entrepreneurial activity. This activity includes the choice of the type of product to be produced, the organization of the production of such a product and its sale.
Such a unity of labor and entrepreneurial activity is characteristic of small-scale production, called simple commodity production. Its representatives are artisans, farmers (peasants), merchants.
With a sufficiently large amount of capital, the labor necessary for its use can be entrusted to hired workers, and purely entrepreneurial activity remains for the owners of capital. Thus, a separation of workers' labor from entrepreneurial activity arises, reflecting the hiring relationship.
Wage labor arises under three basic conditions.
First condition. Personal freedom of workers as owners of their labor force, which allows them to dispose of it at their own discretion, including selling on the labor market. Neither slaves nor serfs had such an opportunity at one time, since they were not personally free.
Second condition. Depriving workers of their own means of production in the form of land and capital, as well as means of subsistence. Thus, at one time the development of wage labor was facilitated by the emancipation of serfs without land. We also already know that small commodity producers, who have gone bankrupt as a result of the operation of the law of value, may also lose their own means of production.
Third condition. Concentration of big capital as a factor of production in the hands of individuals called capitalists. This process is called "initial capital accumulation". As a result of this process, owners of large capital appear who are not able to ensure its functioning by their own labor without the involvement of hired workers.
In general, hiring relations arise when, on the one hand, a mass of people deprived of their own means of production and means of subsistence and possessing only labor power, therefore forced to hire, and on the other hand, large capitals that require significant labor costs for their functioning. The very nature of these relations determines the subordinate position of labor in relation to capital - after all, it is the owners of capital who hire the carriers of labor, and not the owners of the labor force who hire capital.
Labor force as a commodity
The employment relationship presupposes a deal between the employee and the owner of the capital for the provision of a second labor force of the first for a certain payment.
From the point of view of property relations, the worker, as the owner of labor power, transfers the right to use it, dispose of and assign the results of its use to the owner of capital. In essence, this is nothing more than a deal for the sale and purchase of labor power as a commodity.
The existence of labor power as a commodity presupposes the presence of properties characteristic of all commodities: value and use value.
The cost of the commodity "labor power" is determined by the costs invested in its production:
1. Expenditures on the means of subsistence necessary for the worker and his family.
2. The costs of worker education, both general and professional.
3. To restore the ability to work.
4. The cost of maintaining the children of workers.
The use value of the commodity "labor power" can manifest itself only in the process of its consumption, that is, in the process of labor. Its usefulness is assessed by the buyer - the owner of the capital. For the latter, this utility lies in the ability of the labor force to produce the desired product. However, its usefulness cannot be limited only to this. After all, production is organized by the owner of the capital for the sake of income received from the sale of manufactured goods. Moreover, such production for the owners of capital acquires economic meaning if the value of the goods produced exceeds the cost of the factors of production of these goods, that is, additional, or surplus value is obtained.
Since surplus value is part of the value of the commodity produced, it is also created by labor. This means that the worker, creating the value of the commodity, also creates surplus value. This ability to create surplus value is the main utility of labor for the owners of capital.
The price of labor power is wages. It appears as a monetary expression of the value of labor power.
Hired labor is used in relatively large enterprises, which in the conditions of commodity-money relations have advantages over small and medium-sized enterprises. With the development of commodity production, the share of hired labor increases. This determines the socio-economic significance of the relationship between the owner of capital and the wage earners. The central place in these relations is occupied by relations concerning the production and distribution of the value of the goods produced, including surplus value.
The labor process as a process of production of value and surplus value
The process of producing a good requires the use of all factors of production. The use of hired labor assumes that the function of organizing production is performed by the owner of capital directly or indirectly by transferring factors to the disposal of management specialists - managers.
When analyzing the labor process, one should take into account its dual nature. At the same time, it appears as concrete and abstract labor.
Being concrete, labor creates the use value of a commodity with all its physical properties and qualities.
At the same time, labor is abstract, acting in the form of expenditure of the worker's energy, his muscles, nerves, etc. as such, it creates new value.
An employee's labor is divided into two parts. One creates value equal to the value of their labor power, the other creates surplus value. This means the division of labor is unnecessary and surplus. The working day is also divided into the necessary and surplus time. The result of the necessary labor goes to the worker in the form of wages, and the surplus to the owner of capital. For the owner of capital, the ability of labor to create value more than its own by the amount of surplus value is of particular value.
Additional income can be viewed as additional or excess surplus value. The possibility of obtaining excess surplus value acts as a stimulator of the growth of the worker's labor productivity.
Labor as a factor of production
| Parameter name | Meaning |
| Topic of the article: | Labor as a factor of production |
| Rubric (thematic category) | Production |
There are factors without which the concept of production would not make sense, and these are factors that affect the volume of production. The factors of production efficiency are quite diverse, since there are a great many resources for it. There are three main groups of factors: land, labor and capital. Water, forests, fields, minerals, etc., that is, something given by nature or created by man (for example, drained swamps) - ϶ᴛᴏ earth.
Labor as a factor of production is very important and relevant, since it means human participation in the production process, the use of his own energy and potential. The main elements of labor include objects of labor, means and purposeful human activity. The main results of labor: economic benefits, human development (physiological and mental), human living conditions, the accumulation of knowledge and experience.
Labor is not just an engine of progress, labor is the basis of human existence and vital activity, since under its influence the brain, speech develops, experience is accumulated, and skills are improved.
Labor as a factor of production has content and character.
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In terms of content, they distinguish between low-skilled, medium-skilled and highly skilled labor.
Labor has both quantitative and qualitative characteristics. Qualitative characteristics are the level of qualifications of employees, quantitative - ϶ᴛᴏ costs (number of employees, intensity of labor activity, working hours). The more time it takes to train and train a specialist, the more qualifications he has.
In order to determine the nature of labor, it is necessary to conduct a thorough analysis of the combination of labor power and means of production, to clarify who and in what quantities appropriates the results of labor. With this in mind, there are three basic social types of labor: free, hired and compulsory. Forced labor - ϶ᴛᴏ forced labor (slave labor). Today there are the first two types of labor activity.
Free labor is voluntary.
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This is a labor activity for oneself, when the owner and the employee act as one person. A typical example of such an activity: an entrepreneur, a farmer, etc. If the labor activity is of a hired nature, it means that the employer and the employee are ϶ᴛᴏ different people, their relationship is formalized by an employment contract, sometimes an agreement or contract, and based on the results of the work, the employee receives a certain monetary remuneration.
For a long time, the question of whether labor acts as a factor of production or is it labor power has remained a controversial issue. The physical, mental and intellectual abilities of a person are a labor force. If the employer is interested in a person's ability to work, then the factor of production is labor. If the duration of working hours is important for him, then this factor is labor. To work well, a person must have a certain health, abilities and skills, it follows that the labor force exists before the start of the labor process.
Labor productivity - ϶ᴛᴏ the ratio of the result of labor (the amount of products produced) in a certain period of time. Labor productivity, in turn, depends on a number of factors that can affect it.
33. Capital (from lat. capitalis- main, main property, main amount) - a set of assets used to make a profit in the future. The direction of assets in the sphere of production or provision of services for the purpose of making a profit is also called investment or investment.
Distinguish between physical (material capital) and human capital. Physical capital- durable property (buildings, machinery, equipment) used by the firm in its activities. Distinguish between fixed and circulating physical capital. Main capital- real durable assets, the value of which is transferred to the product in parts over a number of periods of production (buildings, structures, machinery, equipment, vehicles, etc.). Working capital- real assets, the value of which is fully transferred to the cost of a new product and returned in cash to the entrepreneur when the product is sold in each cycle (raw materials, fuel, materials, semi-finished products). Human capital- the physical and mental abilities of a person obtained through education or practical experience; a measure of the person's ability to generate income. In other words, human capital is a special kind of labor force. For this reason, capital in the market for factors of production means material factors, capital goods. Another aspect of capital is related to its monetary form. Money capital is the common denominator to which the value of capital in the form of any asset is reduced. In monetary terms, the cost of both physical and human capital must be calculated. Capital embodied in the means of production is usually called real capital. Money capital, or capital in cash, represents investment resources. By itself, money capital is not an economic resource, it cannot be used directly in production, but it can be used to purchase factors of production.
35. Entrepreneurship - a way of doing business on an independent, independent basis.
It is customary to include among the basic functions of modern entrepreneurship:
‣‣‣ Finance and accounting... Financial management involves the mobilization of capital, the accumulation of income from entrepreneurial activities, the management of the use of capital and income. The main task of entrepreneurship is to ensure maximum return on entrepreneurial activity with minimal risk.
‣‣‣ Personnel function... Personnel management includes the selection of candidates and recruitment, personnel management of the organization. Personnel management is a system of management activities in the field of social and labor relations of the organization's staff.
The competitive advantages of the kick of all strata, as of an individual enterprise, today are largely determined by human resources. According to the calculations of the World Bike, in the composition of the national wealth of the United States, basic production assets (buildings and structures, machinery and equipment) account for only 1951, natural resources - 5%, and human capital - 76%. In Western Europe, the corresponding figures are 23.2 and 74%. In Russia - 10, 40 and 50%. At the same time, investments in human resources are growing, which determines the importance of the problem of their recoupment.
‣‣‣ Logistics support... This activity covers operations for the acquisition of raw materials and materials, machinery and equipment. The main task at this stage is the uninterrupted supply of production with the necessary resources at minimal cost.
‣‣‣ Production function... Production involves the transformation of raw materials, materials and semi-finished products into a finished product. Production management is related to technical in technological aspects and is aimed at finding such a combination of factors of production, which, at minimum production costs, would maximize profits.
‣‣‣ Marketing assuming the definition of consumer needs... Marketing is a system of accounting for consumer preferences and influence on the consumer, designed to ensure the sale of products on the market. At this stage, the task of the entrepreneur is to identify the preferences of consumers, and often to form new ones.
‣‣‣ Research activities aimed at creating new technologies, updating the management system, developing and releasing new products. In the age of the scientific and technical, and then the information revolution, scientific discoveries and their technological application play an increasingly important role and largely determine the position of an enterprise in the market, and, consequently, the amount of entrepreneurial income.
‣‣‣ Public relations, implying management of the relationship between the firm and public structures (public authorities, consumer societies, trade unions, the media).
37. Macroeconomics (from ancient Greek μακρός - long, big, οἶκος - House and Nόμος - law) - a science that studies the functioning of the economy as a whole, the economic system as a whole, the work of economic agents and markets; a set of economic phenomena.
The science of macroeconomics deals with questions that cannot be answered at the microeconomic level: the problems studied by macroeconomics are common to the economy as a whole... Macroeconomic problems include:
§ Economic growth, economic cycles: What is economic growth? How to determine the rate of economic growth? What factors can influence economic growth? How does economic growth affect the development of the country in question?
§ Unemployment: Who are the unemployed? Is unemployment positive or detrimental to the economy? How to deal with unemployment? How can the different levels of unemployment in a country be determined? What does unemployment affect?
§ General price level: What is meant by the general price level? How do changes in the price level affect the state of the economy? What is inflation? What inflation is good and what is bad?
§ Money circulation, interest rate level: What is the role of money in macroeconomics? What affects the general interest rate and what does it affect in the economy?
§ The state budget: How does the state regulate its income and expenses? How do such criteria as the welfare of society or the development of business in the country depend on changes in the state budget?
§ Trade balance: How does a country trade internationally with other countries? How do changes in exports and imports affect the exchange rate, the development of the country in question, the state of the world economy?
Labor as a factor of production - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Labor as a factor of production" 2017, 2018.
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Labor as a factor of production. The price of labor.
The labor market is a special area of market relations where transactions for the sale and purchase of labor are carried out. It did not always exist and historically appeared on a mass scale only under the conditions of classical capitalism. Then, on the one hand, the main means of production were concentrated in the private property of businessmen, and on the other, the overwhelming majority of workers were alienated from them. All hired workers became legally free persons, and the main, and even the only, source of their existence was the sale of their labor.
Work Is a purposeful human activity, with the help of which he transforms nature and adapts it to meet his needs.
There are many theories about wages.
According to Karl Marx, wages under capitalism are a converted form of the value of the commodity “labor power”, which is determined by the cost of the means of subsistence necessary for the normal reproduction of labor power (in this case, labor power is understood as the ability of a person to work). Thus, wages are the value of the worker's means of subsistence.
Unlike capitalism, wages under socialism were treated as a part of the country's national income, distributed among workers in the public sector of the economy in proportion to the quantity and quality of labor invested, i.e. wages are wages according to work.
Modern economists in a narrow sense define wages as the price of labor, the income received by an employee for the provision of labor services per unit of time (hour, day, month). In a broad sense, in addition to wages, it also includes income in the form of fees, bonuses and other types of remuneration for labor.
Distinguish between nominal and real wages.
Under nominal wages means the amount of money that a hired worker receives for his daily, weekly, monthly work. By the size of the nominal wage, one can judge the level of earnings, income, but not the level of consumption and human well-being. To do this, you need to know what the real wages are.
Real wages- this is the mass of vital goods and services that can be purchased for the money received. It is directly dependent on the nominal salary and inversely dependent on the level of prices for consumer goods and paid services.
The value of wages is significantly influenced by market factors:
1) supply and demand in the labor market;
2) the form of competition.
The subjects of demand in the labor market are business and the state, and the subjects of supply are households.
The amount of remuneration for labor can change in a competitive market in accordance with the laws of supply and demand.
Labor demand is inversely related to the amount of wages. With an increase in wages, other things being equal, the entrepreneur, in order to maintain equilibrium, must accordingly reduce the demand for labor, and with a decrease in wages, the demand for labor increases.
Consider the process of establishing equilibrium in a competitive labor market using a graphical model (Figure 7.1). Here on the abscissa is the amount of labor (Q), and on the ordinate - the wage rate (W).
The functional relationship between the amount of wages and the amount of labor demand is expressed in the labor demand curve (D)... Each point on the labor demand curve shows what the demand will be for a certain amount of wages. The configuration of the curve and its negative slope show that the lower the wage, the greater the demand for labor, and vice versa.
The situation is different with the function of the supply of labor. It also depends on the amount of wages, but this dependence is direct: the higher the wage, the greater the supply of labor, and vice versa. Therefore, the labor supply curve (S) has a positive slope.
Rice. 7.1. Equilibrium in the labor market
According to the American economist Paul Samuelson, the total labor supply in society is determined by at least four indicators: 1) the total population; 2) the share of the independent population in the total number of inhabitants; 3) the average number of hours worked by workers during the week and throughout the year; 4) the quality, quantity and qualifications of the labor that workers will spend.
Now let's connect these two graphs - the demand curve (D) and supply curve (S) that will intersect at the point (e)... This point on the graph corresponds to a certain equilibrium level of wages (We) and the labor supply specified by this level (Qe).
At the point of balance (e) the demand for labor is equal to the supply. This means that all entrepreneurs who are ready to pay an equilibrium wage find the necessary amount of labor on the market, and workers who are ready to offer their services for this wage are fully employed. This state of the labor market corresponds to that of full employment.
Under any other conditions of wages other than We, the equilibrium in the market is disturbed and two situations arise:
a) if the salary (W 1) above equilibrium, then there is an excess of labor supply, which leads to unemployment;
b) if the salary (W 2) below equilibrium, then the demand for workers exceeds supply and there are unfilled jobs.
Both of these situations in a market of perfect competition cannot be stable; they are subject to correction by market mechanisms in the direction of restoring the position of full employment.
The most typical situation in the labor market is imperfect competition. It develops under the influence of the activities of trade unions, which are on the labor supply side and affect wage rates, and entrepreneurs, which influence wage rates through the demand for labor. Trade unions, on the one hand, and entrepreneurs, on the other, create a double monopoly on the market. Some act as monopolist sellers, while others act as monopolist buyers. Both of these monopoly forces (buyer and seller) set the price. A labor contract (agreement) between the employer of labor and the employee himself serves as a form of reconciling the demand for labor and the supply of labor in a market economy. It can be either individual or collective. Labor contracts:
1) serve as the main form of setting the price of labor (wages) in the labor market. This is their regulatory function at the microeconomic level;
2) perform a protective function, as they protect the socio-economic interests of employees;
3) collective agreements are an integral part of the national system of regulation of labor relations. This is their regulatory function at the macroeconomic level.
The state influences the level of wages by:
Establishing minimum wage rates;
Legal protection of employees and providing them with certain guarantees;
Modifications to standard labor contracts and agreements in accordance with measures to combat inflation;
Limiting the influence of trade unions.
In a market economy, enterprises use two main forms of wages.
Time wages sets the amount of remuneration depending on the time worked. In this case, the amount of payment for 1 hour, day, week, month is calculated and multiplied by the time worked. In many countries, when setting time wages, a unit of measure for the price of labor is determined — the hourly wage rate, which can be calculated by dividing the fixed wage (for a given period of time) by the standardized number of hours worked.
Time wages are usually used in enterprises where a strictly regulated technological regime prevails, it is used to pay businessmen.
For executive, engineering and technical workers and employees, scientific workers, the time wages are set in the form official salaries - the size of the monthly salary, which corresponds to the salary scheme and provides for the maximum and minimum limits (“fork”).
Piecework wages calculated depending on the volume of products released. With a piece wage, earnings increase in direct proportion to the number of manufactured items. This dependence is established using a piece rate. Rates are calculated based on the hourly (or daily) labor price and the standardized amount of production that a person who works with average intensity and average skill makes in an hour or a day.
With piecework wages, a measure of the intensity of the worker's labor is established. This is done with production rates(a specified amount of products to be manufactured by workers in a specified time) or time norms(the reciprocal of the production rate is the time spent on the manufacture of a unit or batch of products). Such production rates are subject to payment in accordance with the established procedure. Self-interest encourages a person to work harder in order to produce more products and increase their income.
Piecework wages are widely used in enterprises where there is a high proportion of manual labor and it is necessary to encourage an increase in the number of manufactured products. In modern conditions, in piecework wages, factors such as product quality, equipment utilization rate, saving of raw materials and materials are increasingly taken into account, which brings piecework wages closer to time-based wages.
At present, the material remuneration of employees is made dependent on the degree of achievement of the commercial results of the enterprise. Bonus systems are widespread, providing special rewards for high product quality, material savings and improved other end results of production. In various options, time-bonus, piece-bonus, piece-progressive, multifactorial and other types of wages are used.
Labor is a process of conscious purposeful activity of people aimed at creating the goods they need. The labor process is associated with the expenditure of human energy, muscles, intelligence. By the nature of these costs, labor can be divided into physical and mental. Physical labor is characterized by the expenditure of mainly physical, and mental - mental energy.
Such costs are considered by economic theory as an expenditure of human labor. Labor is understood as a person's ability to work - physical and professional ability. This means that in order to work, one must have a certain minimum of health and professional skills. Professional skills imply that a person has the information necessary for this work and the ability to use it in the labor process. Such information is needed, since labor is always concrete - this is the labor of a turner, salesman, doctor, teacher - and it requires specific knowledge and skills necessary for the manufacture of some thing or the provision of a service, which, prior to the labor process, must exist in the head of an employee in the form information image.
Labor power exists before the process of labor, which is a function of labor power, begins. Since the labor force contains potential labor, it can be considered as a labor resource, and the working population of the country with its entire totality of labor forces as the labor resources of society.
On a society-wide scale, labor resources are represented by that part of the country's population that is capable of work, i.e. possesses a labor force. This means that only part of the population represents labor resources.
In modern society, the main criteria for including people as carriers of the labor force in the labor force are age, health status and willingness to work. A person can be included in the labor force if he is of working age and in working condition. However, the specific content of the concepts of "working age" and "working condition" in different countries may be different.
If we turn to the first concept, then it means the age of a person at which he can be a subject of labor as a factor of production. This age has lower and upper boundaries, which are different in different countries.
The lower bound in many countries depends on the content of labor, the education system and labor legislation. If work prevails, which does not require great knowledge, then education can be reduced to the transfer by parents of their work experience to children, while if there is no prohibition on child labor, then the working age can start early. If the work of children is prohibited in the country, while difficult work prevails, then there is a need for compulsory secondary and vocational education and the working age begins relatively late.
The upper limit of the working age in modern conditions mainly depends on the legislation that determines the retirement age. In many countries it starts at the age of 65. Some countries have laws according to which a retired person must not work. In other countries, such as in Russia, pensioners are allowed to work, so that the working age of individuals depends on their working condition. The working condition is characterized by physical and mental capacity. On the one hand, this capacity depends on the state of health, and on the other, on the requirements that production makes to work as a factor. It is obvious that the patient is in an incapacitated state, but not every physically and mentally healthy person can be considered capable in those jobs that require special qualifications and exert such a load on the body that not everyone can withstand. That is why, when considering labor as a factor of production, it is necessary to refer to its qualitative and quantitative characteristics.
Qualitative characteristics of labor reflect the level of qualifications of workers. At this level, there is a general division of workers into skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers.
Skilled workers include workers whose training and preparation required a considerable amount of time, who have mastered a lot of information and are able to carry out complex, not so much physically, as intellectually, labor operations. This category includes professional workers classified as civil servants in Russia: teachers, doctors, lawyers, economists, government officials who have undergone long-term general and professional training and are carriers of significant information necessary to carry out complex work.
Semi-skilled workers include workers whose training did not require a long time and who, having a limited amount of information, are able to perform labor operations of average complexity.
Unskilled workers are considered workers who perform work that does not require special training. As a rule, training in the necessary labor operations and obtaining the information necessary for this occurs in the process of labor itself, as the labor of excavators.
The qualifications of workers are reflected in the degree of complexity of their work. Unskilled labor is considered simple, and skilled labor is considered complex, as it were, raised to a level of simple labor, or simple labor multiplied by the corresponding coefficient of complexity. A skilled worker can be distinguished from an unskilled worker by their ability to substitute. A more qualified employee can replace an unskilled one at his work, but the opposite is impossible. For example, a design engineer can sell cigarettes, while a kiosk can not design a car. The use of skilled workers in unskilled jobs means the irrational use of labor as a factor of production.
The progress of society is manifested in an increase in the share of the costs of skilled labor and a decrease in the share of unskilled labor. Moreover, together with the professional growth of a person, his general development also proceeds. The reverse process indicates economic and social regression.
Achieving and maintaining a certain level of qualification of the working population is an important component of the reproduction of the aggregate labor force as a resource. It requires the presence in the country of preschool education, vocational education and - all those institutions of society that provide the phase of production of labor. It is also important for society to distribute the workforce among those industries and enterprises that are in need of it.
In the phase of consumption of labor, the quantitative characteristics of labor as a factor of production are manifested, since they represent the cost of labor. The dependence of production results on labor costs requires taking into account the factors affecting these costs.
Within a country, such cargo costs primarily depend on the number of employed workers. The unemployment of a part of the working population in social production, the presence of unemployment in the country means a decrease in the amount of labor as a factor of production. The costs of individual and aggregate labor are affected by the length of the working day: and weeks; as well as vacations. The working day is the time of day during which the labor process takes place. The work week is determined by the number of working hours per week.
The working day and the working week characterize the working time - the time during which the labor process takes place. Non-working days appear as weekends. They usually fall at the end of the week. Non-working days, usually set once a year while maintaining average earnings, are considered holidays. An increase in the duration of vacations leads to a reduction in labor costs,
Labor costs are also influenced by its intensity. Intensity is understood as the intensity of labor, measured by the expenditure of human energy per unit of time. More intensive work involves, with other factors being the same, higher labor costs.
The factors considered are closely related to each other: the lack of one factor can be compensated for by another. From the point of view of social production, underemployment of the working population can be compensated for by an increased duration of working hours or the intensity of labor of workers. An increase in labor intensity can compensate for a shorter working day and vice versa. A similar relationship exists between the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of labor as a factor of production. Thus, the work of a semi-skilled worker can give the same result in the form of a good and its usefulness as the work of a qualified worker, if it is longer or more intensive. And this is despite the fact that skilled labor gives a much greater result per unit of time at the same intensity than semi-skilled labor.
The ratio of the result of labor in the form of a produced product to its costs in the form of human energy characterizes its productivity. The increase in productivity allows for a given labor input per unit of time to produce more products. Labor productivity depends on a number of factors that can be divided into subjective and objective.
Subjective factors include everything that is directly related to a person as a subject of labor. First of all, this is his qualifications. Skilled labor per unit of time creates more benefits than unskilled labor. Another such factor is labor cooperation. Its organization plays an important role in ensuring labor productivity. Labor organization should exclude unproductive expenditures of employees' efforts, ensure a responsible attitude to work; arouse employees' interest in the results of their work.
The objective factors of labor productivity include changes in the material factors of production - in land and capital, acting as objects of labor. For example, replacing a less fertile plot of land with a more fertile one allows you to increase the yield with the same labor costs. Equipping workers with machines leads to an increase in production volumes even with a reduction in labor costs. Here you can see that the action of objective factors leads to the fact that they replace labor as a factor of production. In this case, the same patterns are manifested as in the replacement of land. The substitution of capital for labor can cause an increase in returns from each additionally involved unit of capital up to a certain point, after which the return begins to fall, i.e. the effect comes into play - diminishing returns on capital as a factor of production.
Subjective and objective factors affect labor productivity in close interaction with each other. You can talk about the net productivity of a particular factor of production. The net productivity of the personal factor of production characterizes the productive power of labor, which exists along with the productive power of land or capital. In general, productivity is determined simultaneously by several factors: if an enterprise replaces old equipment with new ones, then these changes may not ensure productivity growth unless there are corresponding changes in the work of servicing the equipment. So productivity growth here is determined not only by capital, but also by labor.
In the commodity economy, labor is both public and private. The first feature of labor is associated with its specialization and the corresponding division of labor of commodity producers. The labor of individual producers appears as a part of social labor that creates a social product. It is labor to satisfy the needs of other people, that is, labor for society.
In this case, the labor of one producer turns out to be connected with the labor of others, which characterizes the socialization of labor. Thanks to the socialization of labor, the economy turns into a single national system, called the national economy in economic theory. So the systemic nature of the economy, its national economic character is ensured by the socialization of labor, conditioned by the development of commodity production.
The second feature of labor is that it acts as the labor of isolated, economically independent commodity producers, has a private character.
This nature of labor is based on private ownership of capital as a factor of production and of the commodity produced. It stipulates that the production of this or that commodity is a private affair of the owner of capital as a commodity producer. Only the market, through the purchase of a commodity, recognizes the labor of its producer as social labor - labor for society. But the manufactured product may not be bought on the market, which means that it is not recognized by society. In this case, the labor invested in it remains private.
The next characteristic feature of labor in commodity production is its subordinate position in relation to capital. This is due to the fact that it is the ownership of capital as a factor of production that determines the ownership of the produced goods, and it is the owners of the goods, including money as an equivalent commodity, that are the subjects of the market. The lack of capital also makes it impossible to enter the market with the manufactured goods. In this case, the only commodity that can be sold is a person's ability to work, that is, labor power. The buyer of such a product becomes the owner of capital large enough to attract additional labor to ensure its functioning.
Labor in the system of socio-economic relations can be free or hired.
Free is the labor of capital owners, who themselves determine the working conditions, its intensity and duration. The commodity nature of production determines such a feature of this labor as its unity with entrepreneurial activity. This activity includes the choice of the type of product to be produced, the organization of the production of such a product and its sale.
Such a unity of labor and entrepreneurial activity is characteristic of small-scale production, called simple commodity production. Its representatives are artisans, farmers (peasants), merchants.
With a sufficiently large amount of capital, the labor necessary for its use can be entrusted to hired workers, and purely entrepreneurial activity remains for the owners of capital. Thus, a separation of workers' labor from entrepreneurial activity arises, reflecting the hiring relationship.
Wage labor arises under three basic conditions.
First condition. Personal freedom of workers as owners of their labor force, which allows them to dispose of it at their own discretion, including selling on the labor market. Neither slaves nor serfs had such an opportunity at one time, since they were not personally free.
Second condition. Depriving workers of their own means of production in the form of land and capital, as well as means of subsistence. Thus, at one time the development of wage labor was facilitated by the emancipation of serfs without land. We also already know that small commodity producers, who have gone bankrupt as a result of the operation of the law of value, may also lose their own means of production.
Third condition. Concentration of big capital as a factor of production in the hands of individuals called capitalists. This process is called "initial capital accumulation". As a result of this process, owners of large capital appear who are not able to ensure its functioning by their own labor without the involvement of hired workers.
In general, hiring relations arise when, on the one hand, a mass of people deprived of their own means of production and means of subsistence and possessing only labor power, therefore forced to hire, and on the other hand, large capitals that require significant labor costs for their functioning. The very nature of these relations determines the subordinate position of labor in relation to capital - after all, it is the owners of capital who hire the carriers of labor, and not the owners of the labor force who hire capital.
Labor force as a commodity
The employment relationship presupposes a deal between the employee and the owner of the capital for the provision of a second labor force of the first for a certain payment.
From the point of view of property relations, the worker, as the owner of labor power, transfers the right to use it, dispose of and assign the results of its use to the owner of capital. In essence, this is nothing more than a deal for the sale and purchase of labor power as a commodity.
The existence of labor power as a commodity presupposes the presence of properties characteristic of all commodities: value and use value.
The cost of the commodity "labor power" is determined by the costs invested in its production:
The cost of the livelihood necessary for the worker and his family.
Worker education costs, both general and professional.
To restore the ability to work.
The cost of maintaining the children of workers.
The use value of the commodity "labor power" can manifest itself only in the process of its consumption, that is, in the process of labor. Its usefulness is assessed by the buyer - the owner of the capital. For the latter, this utility lies in the ability of the labor force to produce the desired product. However, its usefulness cannot be limited only to this. After all, production is organized by the owner of the capital for the sake of income received from the sale of manufactured goods. Moreover, such production for the owners of capital acquires economic meaning if the value of the goods produced exceeds the cost of the factors of production of these goods, that is, additional, or surplus value is obtained.
Since surplus value is part of the value of the commodity produced, it is also created by labor. This means that the worker, creating the value of the commodity, also creates surplus value. This ability to create surplus value is the main utility of labor for the owners of capital.
The price of labor is wages. It appears as a monetary expression of the value of labor power.
Hired labor is used in relatively large enterprises, which in the conditions of commodity-money relations have advantages over small and medium-sized enterprises. With the development of commodity production, the share of hired labor increases. This determines the socio-economic significance of the relationship between the owner of capital and the wage earners. The central place in these relations is occupied by relations concerning the production and distribution of the value of the goods produced, including surplus value.
The labor process as a process of production of value and surplus value
The process of producing a good requires the use of all factors of production. The use of hired labor assumes that the function of organizing production is performed by the owner of capital directly or indirectly by transferring factors to the disposal of management specialists - managers.
When analyzing the labor process, one should take into account its dual nature. At the same time, it appears as concrete and abstract labor.
Being concrete, labor creates the use value of a commodity with all its physical properties and qualities.
At the same time, labor is abstract, acting in the form of expenditure of the worker's energy, his muscles, nerves, etc. as such, it creates new value.
An employee's labor is divided into two parts. One creates value equal to the value of their labor power, the other creates surplus value. This means the division of labor is unnecessary and surplus. The working day is also divided into the necessary and surplus time. The result of the necessary labor goes to the worker in the form of wages, and the surplus to the owner of capital. For the owner of capital, the ability of labor to create value more than its own by the amount of surplus value is of particular value.
Additional income can be viewed as additional or excess surplus value. The possibility of obtaining excess surplus value acts as a stimulator of the growth of the worker's labor productivity.
Labor is a process of conscious, purposeful activity of people, aimed at creating the goods they need.
The labor process is associated with the expenditure of human energy, muscles, intelligence.
Such costs are considered by economic theory as an expenditure of human labor.
Labor force is understood as a person's ability to work - physical and professional ability. This means that in order to work, one must have certain health and professional knowledge and skills.
Labor power, therefore, exists before the labor process begins, which appears as a function of labor power. Since the labor force acts as labor in potential, it is considered as a labor resource.
On a society-wide scale, labor resources are represented by that part of the country's population that is capable of work, that is, has a labor force.
Labor as a factor of production has quantitative and qualitative characteristics.
Quantitative characteristics reflect labor costs, determined by the number of employees, their working time and labor intensity, that is, the intensity of labor per unit of time.
Qualitative characteristics of labor reflect the level of qualifications of workers. At this level, there is a general division of workers into skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled.
Qualified workers include workers whose training and preparation required a significant amount of time, who have mastered a lot of information and are able to carry out difficult, not so much physically, but intellectually, labor operations. This category primarily includes professional workers who are classified as civil servants in Russia: teachers, doctors, lawyers, economists, government officials who have undergone long-term general and professional training and are carriers of significant information necessary to carry out complex work.
Semi-skilled workers include workers whose training did not require a long time and who, having a limited amount of information, are able to perform labor operations of average complexity.
Unskilled workers are considered workers who perform work that does not require special training. As a rule, training in the necessary labor operations and obtaining the information necessary for this occurs in the process of the labor itself, such as, for example, the labor of excavators.
The qualifications of workers are reflected in the degree of complexity of their work. Unskilled labor is considered simple, and skilled labor is considered complex, as it were, raised to a level of simple labor, or simple labor multiplied by the corresponding coefficient of complexity.
The considered characteristics of labor are closely related to each other, the disadvantages of some characteristics can be compensated by the advantages of others. For example, from the point of view of social production, underemployment of the working population can be compensated for by increased hours of work or the intensity of labor of workers. An increase in labor intensity compensates for a shorter working day and vice versa.
The ratio of the result of labor in the form of the number of products produced (P) to its costs per unit of time (Zt) characterizes labor productivity (Pt):
The increase in productivity allows for a given labor input per unit of time to produce more products. Labor productivity depends on a number of factors that can be divided into subjective and objective.
Subjective factors include everything that is directly related to a person as a subject of labor. First of all, it is his qualifications. Skilled labor per unit of time creates more benefits than unskilled labor. Another factor is labor cooperation. Its organization plays an important role in ensuring labor productivity. The organization of labor should exclude unproductive expenditures of employees 'efforts, ensure a responsible attitude to work, and arouse employees' interest in the results of their work.
The objective factors of labor productivity include changes in the material factors of production - land and capital, acting as objects of labor. For example, replacing a less fertile plot of land with a more fertile one allows you to increase the yield with the same labor costs. Equipping workers with machines leads to an increase in production volumes even with a reduction in labor costs. Here you can see that the action of objective factors leads to the fact that they replace labor as a factor of production. In this case, the same patterns are manifested as in the replacement of land. The replacement of labor by capital can cause an increase in returns from each additionally involved unit of capital up to a certain point, after which the return begins to fall, that is, the effect of diminishing returns on capital as a factor of production comes into play.
It should be noted that subjective and objective factors affect labor productivity in close interaction with each other. Although, we can talk about pure productivity, determined only by subjective factors or only material ones. In the first case, we have to talk about the productive power of labor, and in the second, about the productive power of land or capital. But usually the performance is determined simultaneously by several factors. So, if an enterprise replaces old equipment with new ones, then these changes may not provide an increase in productivity, if not
there will be corresponding changes in the work on the maintenance of equipment. So productivity growth here is determined not only by capital, but also by labor.
The close connection between labor and capital will be especially clearly visible in the subsequent consideration of capital as a factor of production.
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