Question

1. From the Ben and Jerry’s Website: Ben & Jerry’s commitment to economic justice starts with our employees. That’s why we're committed to paying all of our Ben & Jerry's Vermont full time workers a livable wage – enough to allow for a quality of life that includes decent housing, health care, transportation, food, recreation, savings, and miscellaneous expenses. Every year, we recalculate the livable wage to make sure it’s keeping up with the actual cost of living in Vermont. In recent years, Ben & Jerry’s livable wage has been nearly twice the national minimum wage, landing at $15.97 in 2012. Kuttner would describe Ben & Jerry’s as a company that took the high road, rather than the cost-minimizing low road in which they honor the social nature of work. What is the social nature of work? In other words, why do we have to treat workers differently than other inputs, like steel?

Answer 1

Introduction

Ben and Jerry Happens to be one of the highly reputed ice cream and yoghurt companies across the globe. It is based out of the United States and was started in the year 1978 in Vermont.

The case here deals with the case of minimum wages, and how Ben and Jerry have continuously been paying its employees up and above the minimum wage rate, and the reason for this being social nature of work.

Minimum wages refer to the minimum amount of money which a company must at all costs pay to their workers. This is mandated by the government in order to maintain a healthy quality of life.

Ben and Jerry on their part have being doing an analysis of the factors of living such as rent, healthcare costs, transportation food etc. and have been revising the per hour wages themselves. This is because people are unlike any other investment and require careful monitoring, motivation and control in order to achieve a productive work force which can contribute highly productively towards the productivity and profitability of the business organization.

The Social Nature of Work is as explained: -

In the historic times, people were considered an input just as raw material or iron and steel in a production process. This led to widespread discontent among the working staff and their productivity and loyalty towards an organization were extremely poor. This led to issues in effectiveness of an organization and profits remained low for business.

Over the years, companies have understood that the social nature of work is such, that companies need to take care of their employees. The reason for this is that even though, iron steel or other examples of raw material are used up in the production process, it is these very humans who use their skills to get work done in an organization.

Compensation plays an important part in the work force being able to do their jobs in the best possible manner and their being economic justice towards work. What this means is that because of the fact that the labour force is a social resource for an organization, profits which an organization accumulates over a period of time must be reflected in the salaries which organizations give to its employees.

Revising the same from time to time shows how Ben and Jerry as a company realizes the fact that work is social in nature and an employee which is motivated will contribute higher towards achieving the goals of the organization.

Thus, we can conclude by saying that the social nature of work is that people are unlike any other resource such as raw materials which are used up in production. They extend their support to the production process and form an integral part of any organization. Keeping your labour force motivated is essential for ensuring a smoother production process and a better customer experience.

Providing economic justice to people means that a part of the profits which we go on earning over the years, must be given to the labour force as this helps in creating a work force that is motivated and committed in achieving the goals of any organization.

Overall Conclusion: -

The Social Nature of Work refers to a phenomenon wherein the economic profits which a firm earn by selling its products is primarily due to the labour force which contributes in critical decision-making right from procurement to final delivery to the customers. Thus, considering the labour force as an input cost is incorrect.

The labour force is a contributor towards business operations and keeping them motivated is important for a company to grow in terms of profits as well as customer satisfaction. They have their own needs to fulfil for which compensation plays a key role.

Thus, the overall conclusion to the case study is that people are unlike other resources. They are required in each step of production and are social beings who require care and support for 100% utilization as well as profit making. Thus, increasing the wages up and above the minimum wages in the city would allow the company to retain and develop a workforce that contributes more towards profits of an organization.