Workers
Choosing a job
- Two kinds of factor decide which occupation a worker picks:
- wage factors — the pay (a higher wage attracts more workers),
- non-wage factors — hours, holidays, safety, enjoyment, distance, promotion.
Practice
Which is a non-wage factor when choosing a job?
Non-wage factors include hours, safety, enjoyment and promotion; pay is a wage factor.
Why workers earn different amounts
- skill/qualifications — hard-to-replace or highly trained workers earn more.
- danger — risky jobs may pay more.
- trade unions — can bargain pay up.
- discrimination — unfair pay gaps by gender, race or age.
Practice
Skilled, hard-to-replace workers usually earn more because:
Scarce skills and long training raise pay; danger and unions can too.
Division of labour
- Division of labour splits a job into small repeated tasks (specialisation).
- + faster, more skilled, higher output; − boring, one absence stops the line, narrow skills.
Practice
A disadvantage of the division of labour is that repeating one task can be boring.
Division of labour raises output but is monotonous, and one absence can halt the line.
You've got it
Key idea
- jobs are chosen on wage and non-wage factors
- pay differs by skill, danger, trade unions, discrimination
- division of labour raises output but bores workers