for different conditions of work. Different scales of this sort
are to be found in the American coal mines for example. Such "nominal
variations" between piece-work scales would appear to be justified when
the differences of conditions upon which they rest are judged to be not
subject to standardization. To be really practicable the differences of
conditions should also be relatively great, fixed and measureable.[96]

The second type is that which rests upon some difference in the "net
advantages" of the same work carried on in different sections of the
industry or occupation. For the purpose in hand, three sorts of
difference in net advantage may be noted. The first sort would be
represented by a claim for a higher rate than that stipulated in the
general scale, because the work in question was carried on under
conditions involving an _unusual_ degree of disagreeableness or risk. In
my opinion, "nominal variations" based on such differences as these can
safely be left to voluntary bargaining rather than enforced as a matter
of policy. The conduct of almost any occupation involves differences in
the conditions under which it is performed. Nobody entrusted with the
duty of enforcing a policy of wage settlement would find it easy to
define the conditions which warranted an addition to the standard rate.
It would run the risk of being involved in a process of refined
definition which would probably be futile. Justice Higgins stated this
view aptly in a claim for "dirt" money. "My view," he writes, "is that
the minimum rate of wages is not to be made to depend upon the degree of
dirtiness of the work. A man must accept the conditions of the work to
which he has devoted himself; and the court cannot be expected to define
degrees of dirt or to express them in terms of money wages. If the
employer puts the employee to work which is unnecessarily dirty, the
remedy is in prohibition or in regulation--not in increase of wages. My
decision in no way prevents the employer and employee from making a
voluntary stipulation for dirt money in any particular case."[97]

A second sort of difference in net advantage would be represented by a
request on the part of an employer that certain payments in kind should
be considered as part of the wage. An example of this would be the
provision of meals. Such variations would seem to be permissible when
the acceptance of the payment in kind is left optional with the workmen.

A third sort of di