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Piece work or '''piecework''' describes types of Employment in which a Worker is paid a fixed Piece Rate for each unit produced or action performed. In a manufacturing setting, the output of piece work can be measured by the number of physical items (pieces) produced, such as when a Garment worker is paid per seam completed, regardless of the time required. In a service setting, the output of piece work can be measured by the number of operations completed, as when a Telemarketer is paid by the number of calls made or completed, regardless of the outcome of the calls (pay for only certain positive outcomes is more likely to be called a sales commission or incentive pay). As a term and as a common form of labor, 'piece work' had its origins in the Guild system of work during the Commercial Revolution and before the Industrial Revolution . Since the phrase 'piece work' first appears in writing around the year 1549 , it is likely that at about this time, the Master Craftsmen of the guild system began to assign their apprentices work on pieces which could be performed at home, rather than within the master's workshop. In the English System of manufacturing, workers mass-produced parts from a fixed design as part of a Division Of Labor , but did not have the advantage of Machine Tools or Metalworking jigs. Simply counting the number of pieces produced by a worker was likely easier than accounting for that worker's time, as would have been required for the computation of an hourly Wage . Piece work took on new importance with the advent of machine tools, such as the machine Lathe in 1751 and the Sewing Machine in 1755 . Such machines made possible the American System Of Manufacturing (attributed to Eli Whitney ) in 1799 in which workers could truly make just a single part--but make many copies of it--for later assembly by others. The reality of the earlier English System had been that handcrafted pieces rarely fit together on the first try, and a single artisan was ultimately required to rework all parts of a finished good. By the early 1800s, the accuracy of machine tools meant that piecework parts were produced fully ready for final assembly. |
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