Is Wage Slavery A Exaggeration Or Reality

Design/Methodology: Information is collected through semi-structured interviews conducted with 20 individuals from two groups of people. First group is selected from lower income class and second group is selected from the middle class of society. They have equally been picked in the sample. The interview data was analyzed by using NVivo software so that different categories can be inductively explored from data.

Findings: It was observed that people of both middle and lower classes have some similarities and disagreements in their opinions. With a couple of exceptions, a consensus was there that wage system is better than old form of slavery. “Hope for change” in wage system was observed to be an important factor which distinguishes it from slavery. It is noted that the work is not finished yet and the conditions which made slavery look bad are still there in the society. There is a lot to be done to improve the status of poor people & it will not be very valuable to claim that Slavery has been abolished without eliminating those oppressing conditions.

INTRODUCTION

Most people will agree that slavery is wrong and our societies should be free from the evils of it. Some consider Slavery as a problem of past and they are so sure that they do not even try to analyze if same conditions are prevailing today which made it an undesirable state. We need to be very sure that what we mean by “Slavery”, about whose wrongness we are discussing. Slavery can be a very wrong thing but until we work out what it actually is and what it is not, we can not, for sure, claim about its abolishment. Slavery is generally thought of as a practice of bringing outsiders into society so that they can be used in economic production and can be benefited from. Slaves have been considered as a legal property of the Masters. Complete obedience and subordination of the will is regarded as the main feature of this institution (Sio, 1965). Slavery is associated with the condition of oppression as one person (master) exercises his full power on the other person (slave). According to an old definition “Slavery is a condition in which one is in the power of another, whom he is compelled to serve, without the means of redness when wronged” (Brisbane, 1849). This means that people who are been oppressed and they do not have the power to avoid oppressions then they are enslaved people (Brisbane, 1849).

“Slavery is bad” and “discrimination on the basis of race is wrong” have become moral truths in today’s world but it is not so from the start. Slavery has always been accepted in past and was in practice in different countries across the world but never been questioned. If we evaluate the institution of Slavery, we find three major problems with it. Firstly, the problem of selfishness i.e. masters used to take decisions which were in their better interests, not in the interests of the slaves. This means there will not be any issue of slave’s human rights as far as what he or she is doing is in the interest of the master. Secondly, Slaves were considered as personal property, hence inferior to their masters. The worse thing was that this perception was institutionalized. Thirdly, the institution of Slavery stops the slave from reaching his or her full potential. What will slave do is decided by the master, the working hours will also be of the choice of the master.

It is unfortunate that people normally accept practices as the way they are practiced in society and do not challenge the underline assumptions. Previously they were ready to accept Slavery and now they consider it to be wrong. In past, slaves were considered to be a form of capital for their masters as they utilized them in production, agriculture and economic activities. In the economy like United States the number of slaves increased with a constant rate and as per an estimation slave population increased from 697,624 in 1790 to 3,953,760 in 1860. The annual growth rate was about 2.5% (Ransom & Sutch, 1988). Land wasn’t a scarce resource at that time so slaves could be used to prepare and harvest the lands. But with the increase in population, land resource started to become a more important resource than human capital. Moreover, social pressures on slave owners forced them to behave with their slaves in certain manners. According to George, during that time, the slave owners realized that they can enjoy the same benefits of chattel slavery without even fulfilling the responsibilities and expenses by owning the land. They realized that property in land was much valuable than property in man. As per him, if property in human is wrong then property in land should also be wrong as “the ownership of land will always give the ownership of men” (Steele, 1987).

Perrow (1991) did a good job in identifying how labor has been exploited by the new capitalist class. Normally it is believed that wages are fair compensation of workers job and wage cuts are made only when firms are facing big competitive pressures. Seems quite obvious that if the firm is not earning or it is hard for them to survive then they can not increase the wages, rather they had to make the hard decision of cutting the wages of the employees as well as controlling other costs. But what Perrow found out is that the case is entirely different. As per his assessment wages are cut when the labor forces are weak and the wage cuts have nothing to do with the progress of industry. He has given number of examples in which his claim of worker exploitation is proved.

The days of chattel slavery are almost over and it is now considered to be a wrong thing by all the groups and communities but now the free market system is in place. The human beings are considered as “Resources” which can be utilized to enhance profits. There isn’t much responsibility on the shoulders of the capitalist class and by paying low wages, which are not even enough for fulfilling the basic needs of employees, the poor has been pushed to an even worse state and surprisingly if the worker try to commit suicide because of financial burdens then the industrialists are not to be blamed as they are only bound to pay the market price of that worker’s capability.

It seems like in free market economy, where “Human Beings” are paid not by keeping in view their needs but by looking at the demand and supply forces, the situation for employees can be good as well if the demand for labor in high. But even for that short period, employees are only free to change their masters not their own careers. Some employees even feel that this “wage dependency” is more dehumanizing than chattel slavery. As per (Glickman, 1999), in United States, the black worker is not in a better condition in this “Freedom” which he gained than from the slavery he has escaped.

When we look around and observe closely the oppressed class in this free world, we can feel their sorrows. The poor class is working day and night only for the sake of feeding their families. The situation is even worse in under developed countries where people leave their countries and work alone as an illegal immigrant in developed or developing countries only for the sake of fulfilling the basic needs of their families. Their lives are extremely miserable and rightly worse than the chattel slaves. A number of people have been reported to commit suicides because of financial pressures. Cases have also been reported that parents have sold their children only for the sake of money. The message is very clear for the labor class that either work or parish. The industrialists are now free from the burden of feeding the poor. It is wrong to assume that chattel slaves were always been beaten by their masters. Historians have found out that those were even part of military campaigns and some used to do administrative jobs for their masters. It will be interesting to see if people are allowed to legally sell their selves as slaves to others then how many will opt for that option. The concept of job security is discussed in society as well as in management studies that people prefer those jobs which provide job security. For people who have been oppressed by the elites, isn’t it a wise option to become a slave? The best which can be said about today’s free market system is that it is a system in which employees are “free” to choose their “employers/masters”. In economies which are passing through bad times, employees do not even enjoy that leisure and pray all time for their job security.

The objective of this research is to ask people who are working in this wage based system and to report their opinions about it. To achieve the aims of this paper, it has been structured in the following way: first, we’ll discuss the methodology which has been adopted in this research; second, we’ll come up with the major themes which came up while analyzing data; third we’ll analyze views of respondents keeping in view the literature mentioned above; finally we’ll conclude by discussing implications of the whole research. The paper by Johnson, Buehring, Cassel & Symon (2007) has been very helpful in designing the structure of this research paper.

METHODOLOGY

The major part of today’s population is directly or indirectly wage dependent. We can call such people with a general name of “employees” under the wage system. Organizations have different types of employees ranging from top managers to labor class and these employees belong to different income classes so we can assume that their responses regarding wage slavery can differ. The labor community specially can be different in their view as they are very much marginalized in today’s society. To accomplish the purpose of the research I decided to do purposive sampling in which the researchers handpick the respondents on the basis of suitability of the respondents so that researchers can be sure that the sample is satisfying the needs of the research (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2000). Information was gathered by conducting semi structured interviews from 20 responded in which half were from labor class and remaining half were from different portions of middle class.

The semi-structured interviews have been conducted on one-to-one basis. The duration of interviews was from 15-25 minutes. The interviews from the labor class were conducted at their work place while the other interviews were conducted depending where the respondent was found. The interviews from labor class were recorded by the use of recording device as well as notes were taken throughout the interview. The conversation with the middle class group is not recorded but comprehensive notes were taken during those interviews. Questions were generally asked about three main streams: first, it was asked from them that as per knowledge and experience of the respondents how do they evaluate employer/bosses-employee relationship and behavior; second they were asked to comment whether organizations/employers/bosses consider the effects of their decisions on their employees; third how do the respondents think that wage system is different from slavery, which system is better and in their assessment how much the old slavery system is still prevalent.

The response of the labor class was especially very good and they participated in the interview with keen interest. The majority of interviews were done in Urdu language and then translated into English. For the purpose of analyzing data, the interviews were taken into excel and NVivo. Excel was very helpful in looking at all data together and was helpful in identifying the major differences in the views of middle and labor class. On the other hand NVivo was very helpful in categorizing the responses of the respondents and to know about the frequency of certain views. In the next section, we’ll discuss the different categories which have emerged through data so that we can show how the respondents think about employer-employee relationships and wage dependency.

FINDINGS

There were about fifteen categories made through the help of NVivo software which have been grouped below under major themes as some of them were interrelated.

Key to Good Employer/Boss-Employee Relationship:

Assessing employer/boss-employee relationship was one of the main discussion points to know the conditions of employees at work place. There were few similarities and disagreements in the views of our two respondent groups. As per half of the labor group, it is the personality of the bosses which is the key for a good relationship. In their opinion, there are both kinds of people, some are very good and some are bad which reflects in the nature of relationship. The other half of the group thinks that it the behavior of employees which is the prime factor of the relationship. They emphasized that the worker is rewarded because of his efforts at the workplace not because of anything else. If you are a hard working employee then you’ll not face any problem but if you make mistakes then you have to face the consequences. The participants chosen from middle class see this relationship as a professional one and emphasize to work harder in order to have recognition from bosses and have good relationship. Payment of salaries in time has noticed to be major issue which was mentioned by the respondents.

Importance of Employees in the Eyes of Employers/Bosses:

One theme which emerged from the interviews of labor class was that they unanimously expressed that employers do not care for them and they only think of their own perspectives. According to respondents from lower income group, the reason for this behavior is the surplus labor available in the market. According to them, there is no shortage of labor so employers/bosses do not care for the effect of their day-to-day decisions on their employees. No participant from middle class came up with the above analysis. Except a couple of respondents, they were generally happy from their organizations/employers. They think that it is necessary for the profitability of the organizations that top management keep their employees happy and they do so. Some people from both groups explicitly said that it is all about profitability and all their decisions depend on their own interests.

The above arguments are quite interrelated and it appears that labor class has highlighted a valid point that it is all about supply of the labor. As the labor is surplus and there normally is no cost associated with training and development so employers/bosses do not care for them. But for those people, from whom organizations can seek benefit, the working place is nice and employers do care for them. It strengthen the point that academic fields like “Human Resource Development” are also not for the benefit of the employees rather every development is been done keeping in view organizational benefits. Some scholars felt the same thing in HRD and ask whether HRD is about developing resources of the organizations or about developing the resources of humans (Ruona, 2000).

Differentiating feature of Wage-System from Slavery:

The main thing which differentiates wage-system from slavery is the freedom to change jobs and respondents counted it as a very important factor. People change jobs to find better employers and hope that at the next job the employer/boss will be a better person or may be one can find a better opportunity. One respondent even said that those people who were unjustly terminated from their jobs are at better positions at the moment. People who are believers of the Creator Almighty have another source of hope for themselves. Although many people suffer throughout their lives, this “Hope” for catching a better opportunity or finding a good employer or organization is key for their motivation and this is because of the freedom to change jobs. This feature is only provided by wage-system and slavery does not provide such opportunity at the end of the poor people.

The working time & nature of work are not fixed in slavery and masters can use slaves as a product at their will. People prefer clarity in such things and like jobs as they generally know when they will be free from the work and can go home. As a slave, one can not object at the work load from the employers but as an employee, one can even react to the situation and maximum penalty which can be given is termination from the job. One respondent said that it is easy to deceive your employer than your master and if you get caught, then penalty normally is not that big. On the whole people were not that clear in differentiating slavery and wage-system and most of them thought about this issue for the first time.

Wage-System as another form of Slavery:

A couple of respondents, one from each group, felt that there is no difference between this wage system and slavery. Respondent from labor group claimed that people who were slave in the past are slave today as they are living like slaves. Only the time has changed. The respondent from middle class commented:

I spent 20 years in the private sector on the top posts, but found myself a slave, and decided to leave this system, and started my own workshop, where I do welding… but enjoy freeness. Yes, same with different names. One can not have the pride of workmanship. Hard-worker is always low paid. It is 100% same slavery.

The above two respondents were very clear regarding declaring wage system as a different form of slavery. The rest of the eighteen respondents kept on changing positions, which is been discussed in the following section.

Wage-System as a Better System:

Although many people replied during the interview that this wage-system is a different form of slavery but during the discussions they changed their positions. It may be because when they look towards their condition they feel that it is just the same but the additional benefits of wage-system force them to change their position. A question was particularly asked whether they will prefer slavery where shelter, food, health issues and clothing will be responsibility of the master or a wage based job which will be insufficient to fulfill basic needs of the family. Every person from the labor group opted to be a wage worker with financial problems rather than becoming a slave.

Prevailing Slavery in Wage-System:

People have expressed different views about how much slavery is still there in the system of wage dependency. Some consider wage system to be entirely different and a couple of them find it to be just the same but most responses fell between 40%-80%. People acknowledge that some features of slavery are still present in this wage system and the change is because of change in time.

DISCUSSION

When we look towards the concept and conditions of slavery which are discussed at the start of the discussion, and compare it with the above situation, we observe that the problem of selfishness is still there. Organizations/employers show selfish attitudes in dealing with their employees. The organizational benefit is primarily focused and the consequences of organizational decisions on employees are mostly not been discussed, especially talking about labor class. Even from organizational perspective, employers sometimes suffer financial losses by ignoring the importance of HR (Bramson, 2000). The problem of superiority is still there. The definition of slavery which was discussed in start states that “Slavery is a condition in which one is in the power of another, whom he is compelled to serve, without the means of redness when wronged” proves today’s employees very much as enslaved people, whether or not they realize it or not.

The people who are enjoying many benefits in today’s world are unable to understand the misery poor. One respondent asked upon completion of interview that whether this is help to bring any improvement or things will still remain the same and one respondent told during the interview that even after doing so much hard work, I am unable to provide enough to my family. It is very hard to discuss such issues with the poor people and looks to be harmful for them to engage in such interviews. Even with such suffering, they prefer to be a wage worker than to become a slave who will be responsibility of the master. There are many people in this “civilized” world who are been marginalized and their suffering are endless and are waiting and hoping for a better future.

This research highlights an important point and appeals for a realistic position on this issue. When someone calls wage-system as purely another form of slavery then nobody listen to it and reject the claim. Such extreme positions of calling wage-worker as wage-slaves have not really helped the poor. The emphasis should not be on one form of dependency rather it should be the conditions of oppressed people which should be discussed and highlighted. It is more appropriate for researchers to work to eliminate those oppressing conditions. The argument of “whether slavery is still there or gone” is becoming irrelevant, rather it is the prevailing oppressing conditions which are now becoming important. The religious communities discuss how religions have given rights to poor and improved their conditions but they should also play their roles in creating awareness among individuals that employees also have a lot of rights.

CONCLUSION

There is no benefit for humanity to focus only on abolishing the Institution of Slavery and not focusing on the sufferings of human beings. Poor people suffered in the past under Slavery and they are still living under miserable conditions. We can conclude from our discussion that the main focus, while discussing marginalized people, should be on the conditions which are making it miserable. A nation should not have a right to claim “civilization” till they provide support for the poor people and eliminate those oppressing conditions which are there from centuries.

The world is growing in population and its resources are getting consumed. The situation will be even more challenging in future. We may again see elimination of wage-system in future but that will also not be the solution of these problems. The community need to look at this issue from a different perspective and should go to every extreme in order to facilitate marginalized people. The academia should play its role to identify such issues and increase awareness among management practitioners.