Team work and incentives: The origins and development of the butty gang system in Queensland's sugar industry, 1891–1913

Abstract

In Queensland's sugar industry, a butty gang referred to a cane-cutting team operating on a collective piece-rate basis, by which each member of the team shared equally in the joint earnings of the team according to the number of days worked. This paper combines theory and evidence to investigate the origins and development of the butty gang system in Queensland's sugar industry between 1891 and 1913. Attention is focused on the economic organization of the team, the nature of the incentives implicit in the collective piece-rate arrangement, and the determinants of the optimum size of the team.