IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cbr/cbrwps/wp499.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

'Wage', 'Salary' & 'Remuneration': A Genealogical Exploration of Juridical Terms & Their Significance for the Employer's Power to Make Deductions from Wages

Author

Listed:
  • Zoe Adams
  • Centre for Business Research

Abstract

The Supreme Court in Hartley v King Edwards VI College (2017) has confirmed that an employee who refuses to work in accordance with his contract forfeits his right to be paid for the duration of the breach. The decision extends to professional employees paid a periodic salary the principle established in Miles v Wakefield MDC (1987). The present article sheds new light on these decisions by situating them within a broader debate concerning the function of the wage and the proper relationship between work and payment. Drawing on insights from economic theory, and engaging in a genealogical analysis of legal concepts, the article shows how this debate has, over time, conditioned the use of concepts such as the 'wage', 'the salary' and 'remuneration' in legislation and case law concerning deductions. It shows that the legal concept of the 'wage' is closely related to the economic idea of the wage as the price of a commodity, while the legal concepts of 'salary' and 'remuneration' are more closely analogous to the economic idea of the wage as the cost of subsistence. The courts' tendency to confuse these concepts, and to analyse the employer's power to deduct as a right to withhold wages for non-performance of the contract, tells us much about the implicit assumptions underpinning cases such as Miles and Hartley, and how they have shaped the path of the law.

Suggested Citation

  • Zoe Adams & Centre for Business Research, 2018. "'Wage', 'Salary' & 'Remuneration': A Genealogical Exploration of Juridical Terms & Their Significance for the Employer's Power to Make Deductions from Wages," Working Papers wp499, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    • Handle: RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:wp499
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/cbrwp499.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sidney Webb, 1912. "The Economic Theory of a Legal Minimum Wage," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 20(10), pages 973-973.
    2. Deakin, Simon & Wilkinson, Frank, 2005. "The Law of the Labour Market: Industrialization, Employment, and Legal Evolution," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198152811.
    3. J. R. Hicks, 1963. "The Theory of Wages," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-00189-7.
    4. S. Deakin, 2001. "The Contract of Employment: A Study in Legal Evolution," Working Papers wp203, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    5. Ricardo, David, 1821. "On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, edition 3, number ricardo1821.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:ilo:ilowps:486240 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Zoe Adams & Simon Deakin, 2014. "Institutional Solutions to Precariousness and Inequality in Labour Markets," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 52(4), pages 779-809, December.
    3. Bruce E. Kaufman, 2009. "Promoting Labour Market Efficiency and Fairness through a Legal Minimum Wage: The Webbs and the Social Cost of Labour," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 47(2), pages 306-326, June.
    4. Zoe Adams & Simon Deakin, 2014. "Institutional Solutions to Precariousness & Inequality in Labour Markets," Working Papers wp463, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    5. Diogo Correia & Ricardo Barradas, 2021. "Financialisation and the slowdown of labour productivity in Portugal: A Post-Keynesian approach," PSL Quarterly Review, Economia civile, vol. 74(299), pages 325-346.
    6. Aleksynska, Mariya. & Schmidt, Alexandra., 2014. "A chronology of employment protection legislation in some selected European countries," ILO Working Papers 994862403402676, International Labour Organization.
    7. Rune Skarstein, 2007. "Free Trade: A Dead End for Underdeveloped Economies," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(3), pages 347-367.
    8. Brausmann, Alexandra & Bretschger, Lucas, 2018. "Economic development on a finite planet with stochastic soil degradation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 1-19.
    9. Ayhan, Fatih & Elal, Onuray, 2023. "The IMPACTS of technological change on employment: Evidence from OECD countries with panel data analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    10. Bahar, Dany & Rosenow, Samuel & Stein, Ernesto & Wagner, Rodrigo, 2019. "Export take-offs and acceleration: Unpacking cross-sector linkages in the evolution of comparative advantage," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 48-60.
    11. Benoît Lyrette & Paul-Martel Roy, 1992. "Le régime des décrets favorise-t-il la paix industrielle? L'expérience des activités manufacturières québécoises, 1980-1988," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 18(3), pages 261-274, September.
    12. Sergeyev, Dmitriy & Iovino, Luigi, 2018. "Central Bank Balance Sheet Policies Without Rational Expectations," CEPR Discussion Papers 13100, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    13. Joseph Francois & M. Rombout, 2000. "Preferential Trade Arrangements, Induced Investment, and National Income in a Heckscher-Ohlin-Ramsey Model," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 00-061/2, Tinbergen Institute.
    14. Banfi, Silvia & Filippini, Massimo, 2010. "Resource rent taxation and benchmarking--A new perspective for the Swiss hydropower sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 2302-2308, May.
    15. Ryuzo Sato & Tamaki Morita, 2009. "Quantity Or Quality: The Impact Of Labour Saving Innovation On Us And Japanese Growth Rates, 1960–2004," The Japanese Economic Review, Japanese Economic Association, vol. 60(4), pages 407-434, December.
    16. Michalis Nikiforos, 2020. "Demand, Distribution, Productivity, Structural Change, and (Secular?) Stagnation," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_945, Levy Economics Institute.
    17. H. W. Arndt, 1984. "Political Economy," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 60(3), pages 266-273, September.
    18. Emilio Depetris-Chauvin & Ömer Özak, 2020. "The origins of the division of labor in pre-industrial times," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 297-340, September.
    19. Arindrajit Dube & Attila S. Lindner, 2024. "Minimum Wages in the 21st Century," NBER Working Papers 32878, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Boerner, Lars & Severgnini, Battista, 2015. "Time for growth," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 64495, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    21. Ramona Dumitriu & Razvan Stefanescu, 2015. "The Relationship Between Romanian Exports And Economic Growth After The Adhesion To European Union," Risk in Contemporary Economy, "Dunarea de Jos" University of Galati, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, pages 17-26.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    contract of employment; remuneration; wages; deductions; legal evolution; law and economics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B13 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Neoclassical through 1925 (Austrian, Marshallian, Walrasian, Wicksellian)
    • B14 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Socialist; Marxist
    • B15 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary
    • B24 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Socialist; Marxist; Scraffian
    • J40 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - General
    • J48 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Particular Labor Markets; Public Policy
    • J83 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Workers' Rights
    • K3 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:wp499. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ruth Newman (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.