Problem

Abuse of in kind payments

Other Names:
Abuse of non-salary benefits
Featherbedding
Substitution of goods for wages
Payment in kind
Nature:
Payments in kind, especially when compulsory (workers being paid in part in the goods they produce, or workers being forced to purchase goods from company stores), may seriously restrict a worker's freedom to spend his wages. Deductions for defective work and disciplinary fines are two other means by which payments may be abused.

Fringe benefits also represent abuse of payments. Company expense accounts, dinners, travel expenses are all just sophisticated forms of wages in kind and thus are liable to abuse, though often in reverse, that is, the employee abusing the payments in kind offered by the employer.

Incidence:
There were reports in 1993 of Latvian workers being paid with eggs, clothes and furniture as alternatives to money, due to the shortage of banknotes.
Narrower Problems:
Abuse of expense accounts
Subject(s):
Social Activity Employment conditions
Social Activity Welfare
Commerce Currency
Commerce Merchandise
Societal Problems Maltreatment
Related UN Sustainable Development Goals:
GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
Problem Type:
F: Fuzzy exceptional problems
Date of last update
01.01.2000 – 00:00 CET