What is the value of the work we do?  How do we measure that value?  Are salaries commensurate with the value of our labors?  I would wager that many would say “no.”  I certainly would.

We can talk about the comparatively low salaries for our public school teachers in comparison to the pay scale for professional athletes; or the institution of a minimum wage to counteract the inability of markets to provide income equity for the least able members of the work force.  But what I want to know is, if we were to develop a new system, a system that awarded value to jobs not just based on economic terms, but also for their social and environmental benefit to society, what would that look like?  And how do we get there.

Enter The New Economics Foundation (NEF) and their report called  “The Value of Work,” released last year around Christmas time.  “For the first time, NEF is attempting to put a value on what different types of employment are ‘worth’ to us as a society…In doing this we hope to throw light on the disparity between the way our society rewards certain activities that might have little social benefit and disincentivises others that have far greater social benefit. Not only are people encouraged to pursue a bottom line no matter what cost (e.g. sell a mortgage to someone they know can’t afford it) but the jobs that may be the most socially and environmentally destructive may be attracting the best and brightest staff at the expense of other professions.”

The report uses valuation techniques to track and measure the social, environmental and economic value that six professions produce – or in some cases undercut.  It also sets out to bust some myths associated with the subject, like:

• We need to pay high salaries to attract and retain talent
• Workers in highly paid jobs work harder
• The private sector is more efficient than the public sector
• Pay always rewards underlying profitability
• Some jobs are more satisfying, so they require less pay

I’m curious, how about you?

I’m trying to imagine what it would look like if salaries were based on a more holistic measure of the benefit to society.  Would garbage men be the new millionaires? Or teachers?  Would cinema stars find themselves making minimum wage (no judgements here about the actors; I love the movies. I’m just speculating)?  What are the benefits to society for various professions, professions that go unobserved and undervalued, but are of tremendous use to us all?

“The research will also challenge our notion of what constitutes ‘value’ and suggest mechanisms for measuring a broader and richer set of costs and benefits that are not captured in the bottom line. It seeks to disrupt the link between pay and status and draw attention to the impacts of different kinds of work that are often hidden behind paychecks. This will go beyond the usual emphasis on nurses and teachers to jobs that often go unnoticed.”

If you’re interested, go check out their article.  You can download it from the site for free.  NEF has tons of other interesting studies and reports released from their site.  Some that consider the implications of changing the global workforce to work a 21-hour day, or a toolkit for making active choices to change your energy use habits for the better.  It’s a pretty tremendous resource, and all of it available to the public for no charge!

Saludos,

Megan