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The Family Wage

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

Meir Avizohar
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Abstract

The study deals with the history of an early Israeli labour movement attempt at establishing economic equality. In the early 1920s, under unique conditions, which made the Histadrut (Israeli general union) the largest employer of its members, a ‘family wage’ was established after its workers spontaneously began to practise communal distribution of their basic necessities. Though applied only to a minority of Histadrut members, it was extremely prominent in ideological and educational activities of organized labour, because the minority included the leadership, officers and managerial strata.

From the outset the system was beset by controversy over application, and, more significantly, over what actually constituted equality: an equal standard of living for families or equal pay for equal work. One problem never solved was how to convince skilled workers, especially profesisonals, to accept the same wage as unskilled workers. The system was therefore eroded from the beginning by exceptions made for specific groups. As more and more groups pulled out and regulations became harder to enforce, the family wage became isolated to the point where it was repealed in 1954.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , January 1977 , pp. 47 - 54
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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References

1 Kibbutz Bibliography, compiled by Shor, S., Van Lear and others, Jerusalem, 1971Google Scholar, presents a list of more than 800 articles and books in English.

2 Gutevich, D., Statistical Handbook of Jewish Palestine, Jerusalem: The Jewish Agency, 1942, p. 290.Google Scholar

3 The Second Council of the Public Works Employees was elected in 1921 by 1,629 members, a third of the total Histadrut membership.

4 ‘Proposals to the Achdut-Haavoda Conference’, Kuntress, no. 92, 9 September 1921 (Hebrew).Google Scholar

5 Benari, N., ‘Internal Market’, Pinkas, vol. 1, no. 9, February 1923 (Hebrew).Google Scholar

6 Dan, H., Bederech Lo Shula (Memoires, Hebrew), Jerusalem: Stockon, 1963, p. 39.Google Scholar

7 In a speech to the Third Conference of his party, Achdut Haavoda, December 1922.Google Scholar

8 By the Second and Third Council of the Public Works Employees, Summer 1921 and Winter 1922.

9 In a speech at the Second Conference, January 1923.

10 The relationships of the ratings of the Histadrut family wage scale do not vary significantly from the scale of equivalence used by Rowntree. According to the Histadrut family wage, the rate for a single person was 1.43 times the rate for a ‘standard’ adult (defined as half a married couple), and the rate allowing for a child (depending on age) was 0.47–0.57. Rowntree's equivalent for a single person was higher in 1936, but lower in 1950. Regarding allowances for children, he minimized their needs during the interwar period and was more generous in 1950, giving them more or less the same equivalent as the Histadrut family wage.

11 In the Eighth Council, held on 22–8 July 1923.

12 Sussman, Zvi, Wage Differentials and Equality within the Histadrut, Massada, 1974 (Hebrew)Google Scholar. Sussman, 's main argument is included in an English article, ’The Wage Policy of the Histadrut’, in Avrech, I. and Giladi, D. (eds), labour and Society in Israel, Dept. of Labour Studies, Tel Aviv University, 1973.Google Scholar

13 In the Twentieth Council, March 1928.

14 The minutes of the council, held in March 1931, contain a frank and vivid discussion of the problem.

15 They included Mrs Golda Meir and a few other future Israeli government ministers. David Ben-Gurion gave the family wage principle qualified support.

16 Horrin, Y., speaking at the Twenty-fifth Council.Google Scholar

17 Chussi, A., 25th Histadrut Council Report, March 1931, p. 46 (Hebrew).Google Scholar