Re: Paul Krugman holds forth on the future of publishing

I'd have to disagree with you on this, Jon.  I'd argue that a 'fair wage' cannot, by definition, 
be below the minimum wage.  After all, minimum wage laws (which, interestingly, 
apparently originated in Australia and New Zealand) were enacted because any lower wage 
is agreed to be unfair to workers.  Here in the U.S. at present, federal minimum wage is 
$5.85 an hour, but in my state of Washington it's $8.07.  Paying your hypothetical novel 
writer less would actually be illegal under Washington state law.  To quote from the state 
Labor and Industries website,

"The wage applies to workers in both agricultural and non-agricultural jobs. Although 
there are some exemptions, most workers must be paid the minimum wage for all "hours 
worked" as required by state law. "Hours worked" includes opening and closing the 
business, and required meetings and training. Any time spent by an employee in the 
performance of these duties must be recorded and paid."


John

--- In [email protected], Jon Jermey <jonjermey@...> wrote:
>
> Nothing esoteric about this; it's the kind of question wage 
> tribunals deal with all the time. Basically, a 'fair wage' 
> for writing is the minimum that an average person with the 
> requisite skills and an alternative source of income would 
> accept in return for the effort involved in producing a 
> novel. But because all novels are different, let's be more 
> flexible and say it's the minimum that _that person_ would 
> accept in return for the effort. So if Steven King would 
> produce a novel for $50,000, then paying him $1,000,000 for 
> it is a gross misallocation of resources which could be 
> better spent elsewhere, just as it is to pay someone $1,000 
> for a novel when they would have written it for nothing. The 
> degree of misallocation gives us an indication of how badly 
> the market is malfunctioning due to artificial restrictions 
> on trade and distribution.
> 
> Jon.
> 
> 
> Mary E Tyler wrote:
> >> Why in hell would authors get paid after they obtained the fair amount
> >> of money they deserve for the number of hours they worked?
> > 
> > 
> > How much is a "fair amount"?
> > 
> > I know people who make $10/hr for writing (and certain people who make  
> > much, MUCH less) and those who make $200/hr for writing (and sometimes  
> > much, MUCH more). How much is "fair?"
> > 
> > Are all novels worth the same?
> > 
> > dej
>




------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------
Post a message:   ebook-community [[at]] *
Unsubscribe:      ebook-community-unsubscribe [[at]] *
Switch to digest: ebook-community-digest [[at]] *
Switch to normal: ebook-community-normal [[at]] *
Put mail on hold: ebook-community-nomail [[at]] *
Administrator:    ebook-community-owner [[at]] *

(* == yahoogroups.com)
-------------------------------------------------------Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ebook-community/

<*> Your email settings:
    Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ebook-community/join
    (Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
    mailto:[email protected] 
    mailto:ebook-community-fullfeatured-hHKSG33TihhbjbujkaE4pw@public.gmane.org

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    ebook-community-unsubscribe-hHKSG33TihhbjbujkaE4pw@public.gmane.org

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/