162
THE RATE OF WAGES
For the sake of clarity and precision we shall discuss
this topic under two heads :
(i) rate of wages for free labour j1 and
(ii) rate of wages for Halis.
(i) The rate of wages for free labour : There are as
many difficulties in calculating the average rate of wages
in the case of a free labourer as there are different me-
thods of making payment. The following are some of
the principal methods of paying wages prevailing in this
village :
(a) Usually a labourer is paid in kind. In certain sea-
sons, however, like the time of harvesting grass or cut-
ting babul in December and January, he is paid in cash.
Now it is very difficult to calculate in money, the wages he
receives in kind per annum (if the labourer knows them
at all), as the price of the commodity in which he is paid
fluctuates from time to time.
(b) In certain seasons again, he receives a day's wage
partly in kind and partly in cash. For instance, in the
season of manufacturing gul out of sugarcane, besides
taking his day's wage, he is allowed to take away one or
two bundles of sugarcane at the end of the day for which
he works. In some cases he receives also a small quan-
tity of gul from the farmer at the end of the manufacturing
process. Similarly in the season of harvesting paddy h«
is allowed to take away a small bundle of paddy sheaves.
These extra wages cannot be ignored while calculating the
average rate of wages.
(c) Sometimes a group of labourers undertake to work
on piece wages. They enter into a verbal contract with
a big farmer to finish a piece of work e. g. digging
a field, with deep-rooted grass, on payment of a lump
sum. This amount varies with the persuasiveness
of the employing farmer and the intelligence of the labour-
1 The phrase 'free labour* is used to distinguish the labour of an Inde-
pendent or free worker as against the labour of a Hali.