Questions of Payment for The Work of The Machine Operators at The Collective Farms

Abstract

The question of the most effective system of payments to MTS operators who now work at the collective farms is very important. Far from all MTS have been reorganized and the question of retaining machine operators in agriculture is very vital. They went willingly to work for the economically strong collective farms because such farms guaranteed high and stable earnings. Payments per labor day in 1957 in the strong collective farms of the Moscow regions varied from 13 to 27 rubles per labor day and tractor drivers were getting from 4 to 7 labor days for the actual work day, depending upon the complexity of the machines. For the MTS combine operators the pay per unit of work was the same throughout the USSR; but as conditions differed, their earnings differed too. They harvested 12.1 ha per machine per day in Kazakhstan in 1957 (where the weather is favorable and the fields are large) and only 4.2 ha in Latvia, so that the average earnings of combine operators varied from 138.8 rubles in Kazakhstan to 34.45...