What is the relationship between working conditions and standard of living?

Question

I am having trouble finding a correlation between fierce working conditions (i.e. child labor, factory working, etc.)and standard of living...could someone please give me an explanation of how they are related. I think understand the concept of standard of living, but every time I go back and try relating it to working enviornments, I can't seem to find why they are related...

Any explanation is greatly appreciated!
Thanks for your help!!!

Answer 1

There is generally a positive correlation between working conditions and the standard of living.

The greater the standard of living, presumably the wealthier the workers, since they can afford higher standards of living (eg. accomadation, food, etc.). Labour is a service and if substitutes [alternative prospective employers; demand for labour] exist in the labour market, then unless businesses offer safer and cleaner working conditions workers may quit their job and seek employment elsewhere.

Businesses and Monopoly Power

As many third world nations do not have flourishing business centres or economies (with some exceptions, such as China and India, though it should be noted that only small areas of those countries are flourishing) there isn't a diverse variety and large number of businesses in the area. So the few firms operating in the area have high monopoly power [bargaining power] over the working conditions and pay for workers. Fierce working conditions are usually symptomatic of poorer economies, with poverty striking most areas of domestic life.

Wealthier economies, or first-world nations, generally have a wealthier workforce. These economies usually have capitalist elements, though some may have socialist elements as well (eg. France and the maximum 8 hr working day), meaning that resources [labour] is very mobile in the economy. Because of the prevalence of substitutes, the monopoly power of firms in the labour market on average is decreased.

A thing to note is that leisure is a normal good, so generally the higher your pay, the more leisure you'll consume.

Answer 2

Workers make choices between work and leisure. and as a person increases consumption there is a decline in the marginal utility that person derives from consuming each additional unit.The value of work is the Utility obtained from the goods and services that can be purchased with your wages . So the higher the wages (and therefore the standard of living) the less valuable the wages of an extra hour of work is to an employee. Employers to get people to work the needed amount must either make works less unpleasant so leisure less attractive, or pay higher wages to overcome the decreasing marginal utility. of consumption. If the firm is efficient the determine they balance to minimize production costs.

Answer 3

working conditions have to do with safety on the job. a certain age is required in most states (except those with agricultural demand) andchild labor does not allow the use of machinery. Standard of living is a new law that compensates the minimum wage with the increase in the cost of living based on inflation

Answer 4

the higher the standard of living, the better working conditions that workers expect or require.

Part of it is habit formation, part is social standards of society, yet another part is having alternative employment opportunities with better working environment that typically arise as the economy develops.