International Labor Organization

Abstract

The primary emphasis of the report of the Director-General of the International Labor Organization to the thirty-fourth session of the Conference was the issue of wage policy in conditions of full employment. The Conference debate on this question, stimulated by the report Mr. Morse hoped, would help ILO member countries to arrive at wage-price policies “designed to promote the best interests both of workers and of the community as a whole, in conditions of full employment and scarcity of labor.” The problem of wage determination had been receiving renewed public attention, mainly owing to the desire to include restraint of wage increases in a program designed to minimize the possible inflationary effects of full employment, economic development and rearmament. There existed also a belief that adjustments in the wage structures of most countries were needed to provide increased incentives for workers to acquire skill, to work harder and to man the essential industries where labor was particularly scarce.