"Reward," in this case, is usually simply a living
wage,--enough to inspire the man, if he needs the money enough to
work to hold his position, but not enough to incite him to any extra
effort.

It is true that, in actual practice, through the foreman or some
man in authority, the workers on day work may be "speeded up" to a
point where they will do a great deal of work; the foreman being
inspired, of course, by a reward for the extra output, but, as Dr.
Taylor says, paragraph 17--"A Piece Rate System," this sort of
speeding up is absolutely lacking in self-sustaining power. The
moment that this rewarded foreman is removed, the work will again
fall down. Therefore, day wage has almost no place in ultimate,
scientifically managed work.

PIECE WORK PROVIDES PAY IN PROPORTION TO WORK DONE.--Piece Work
is the opposite of time work, in that under it the man is paid not
for the time he spends at the work, but for the amount of work which
he accomplishes. Under this system, as long as the man is paid a
proper piece rate, and a rate high enough to keep him interested, he
will have great inducements to work. He will have a chance to
develop individuality, a chance for competition, a chance for
personal recognition. His love of reasonable racing will be
cultivated. His love of play may be cultivated.

All of these incentives arise because the man feels that his
sense of justice is being considered; that if the task is properly
laid out, and the price per piece is properly determined, he is
given a "square deal" in being allowed to accomplish as great an
amount of work as he can, with the assurance that his reward will be
promptly coming to him.

DANGER OF RATE BEING CUT.--Piece work becomes objectionable only
when the rate is cut. The moment the rate is cut the first time, the
man begins to wonder whether it is going to be cut again, and his
attention is distracted from the work by his debating this question
constantly. At best, his attention wanders from one subject to the
other, and back again. It cannot be concentrated on his work. After
the rate has been cut once or twice,--and it is sure to be cut
unless it has been set from scientifically derived elementary time
units,--the man loses his entire confidence in the stability of the
rate, and, naturally, when he loses this confidence, his work is
done more slowly, due to lack of further enthusiasm. On the
contrary, as long as it is to his advantage to do t