standard is set for such individuals as are mutually
acknowledged to be decidedly below the average of the group.

In this regard Mr. Collier's report on the Australasian experience is a
useful guide. He writes: "That workers may be displaced following the
application of wage regulation to an industry is a fact sustained by the
experience of Australasia. In New Zealand, many bona fide workers were
thrown out of employment during the early years of the arbitration law.
There was also considerable distress among the boot and clothing workers
of Victoria. Many of the old, inefficient, and slow workers were
discharged. But in each case other factors than labor legislation
figured in the situation. We have seen that in the board trades of
Victoria there has frequently been a decrease in the number of employees
immediately after a determination became effective, but that in almost
every instance this decline was temporary. After the period of
adjustment, industry pursued its normal course. This seems to have been
the general experience in this and other states."[81] It may be
concluded that some redistribution of available employment will
sometimes follow upon the introduction of the standard wage into
industries in which wages were hitherto unstandardized, resulting in the
partial or complete unemployment of the least efficient members of the
group. As was said above, the extent of such redistribution will depend
somewhat upon the demand and supply situation at the time when the
standard wage is introduced. Those whose employment is reduced or taken
away will either go into some work on which they compare more favorably
with the other workers engaged, (leading to a further redistribution of
employment perhaps), or will remain unemployed. The other members of the
group will have increased employment.

7.--Still another possible effect of the introduction of the standard
wage deserving of attention, is that which it may have upon industrial
organization, and upon the level of managerial ability. As will be made
clearer elsewhere, the enforcement of standard wage rates in an industry
is usually equivalent in practice to the enforcement of those rates that
are already being paid by the better organized units of that
industry.[82] This leveling process may have any or all of several
consequences. It may cause enterprises which had succeeded in competing
partly because they paid lower wages than more efficient enterprises for