Wage control

This refers to the state intervening in wage decisions that should be made independently by labor and management, and regulating wage increases. Wages, which have a major impact on the national economy and are the basis of workers' lives, are often subject to regulation even under capitalist systems. Wage controls are particularly common during times of war and inflation. There are two methods of wage control: direct control, which directly controls wages with legal force after denying basic labor rights, and indirect control through guidelines that do not have legal force.

In Japan, direct controls were implemented for the purpose of carrying out the war effort after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937 (Showa 12). Based on the National Mobilization Law promulgated in April 1938, the First Wage Control Order was issued in March of the following year, the Temporary Wage Measures Order in October of the same year, and the Second Wage Control Order in October 1940. Even during the occupation after the war, indirect wage controls were implemented as part of comprehensive inflation countermeasures, such as setting a base average wage of 1,800 yen by industry (1947), setting the salary level for public officials at 2,920 yen (1948), and the Three Wage Principles (1948), which prohibited wage increases through deficit loans and subsidies. In addition, based on the International Labor Organization's (ILO) "Convention concerning the Establishment of a Minimum Wage Fixing Authority" (Convention No. 26), the Minimum Wage Law was enacted in 1959, and the Homework Law, which allows for the determination of minimum wages, was enacted in 1970. However, these laws too could potentially become tools for wage control depending on how they are implemented.

Since the 1960s, advanced capitalist countries have often attempted income policies in which the government is involved in controlling wages and other incomes and price levels, as seen in the wage freeze policy implemented by the Labour government in the UK in 1948, and the wage regulation policy implemented by the Conservative government in 1961 was in fact a wage freeze. The social contract of 1975, in which the government made gentlemanly promises to curb increases in consumer prices and to cut taxes, and labor unions made gentlemanly promises to refrain from raising wages, can also be considered a form of wage control.

[Kounosuke Koizumi]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

労使が自主的に行うべき賃金決定に対して、国家が介入し、賃金の上昇を規制することをいう。国民経済に大きな影響を与え、労働者生活の基盤となる賃金は、資本主義体制のもとでもしばしば規制されやすい。とくに戦争やインフレ時などには賃金統制が行われることが多い。賃金統制の方法には、労働基本権を否認したうえで法的強制力をもって直接賃金を統制する直接的統制と、法的強制力をもたない指針などによる間接的統制とがある。

　わが国においては、1937年（昭和12）の日中戦争勃発(ぼっぱつ)以降、戦事遂行を目的として直接的統制が行われた。すなわち、38年4月に公布された国家総動員法に基づいて、翌39年3月に第一次賃金統制令、同年10月に賃金臨時措置令、40年10月に第二次賃金統制令が公布された。戦後の占領下においても、総合インフレ対策の一環として、業種別平均賃金1800円ベース設定（1947）、官公吏の給与水準2920円（1948）、あるいは赤字融資や補給金による賃上げを禁じた賃金三原則（1948）などの間接的賃金統制が行われた。また、国際労働機関（ILO）の「最低賃金決定機構の創設に関する条約」（26号条約）に基づいて、最低賃金法が1959年（昭和34）に制定され、最低工賃額を決定できる家内労働法が70年に制定されているが、これらも運用いかんによっては賃金統制の道具に転化するおそれなしとはいえないであろう。

　1960年代以降、先進資本主義諸国において、賃金をはじめとする諸所得と物価水準に対して政府が関与する所得政策がしばしば試みられているが、これは、1948年にイギリスにおいて労働党政府が行った賃金ストップ政策にすでにみられるし、61年における保守党の賃金規制政策はまさに賃金凍結であった。また、消費者物価上昇の抑制と減税を政府が、賃上げ自粛を労働組合が、それぞれ紳士的に約束した75年の社会契約も、やはり一つの賃金統制であろう。

［小泉幸之助］

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