임금의 본질에 대한 고찰

Abstract

There’re several theories on the essencial nature of wage, and those are theory of the price of labor, theory of the price of labor-force, theory of two-split wage characteristics. Those theories, which came from Japanese labor-law scholars and judicial precedents, have partial legal appropriateness on the one hand, but on the other hand have legal vulnerable points as well. And there are some viewpoints which stands skeptistic about the usefulness of the theories on the essencial nature of wage, regarding new theories - e.g. theory of wish-interpretation, theory of labor- management relations suspension - as useful when judging ‘the sphere of wage- deduction during strike’. But I don't agree with those viewpoints because I think that theories on the essencial nature of wage are useful for the rational and systematic understanding of various legal problems about wage. In this thesis, after reviewing the traditional theories about the essencial nature of wage(theory of the price of labor, theory of the price of labor-force, theory of two-split wage characteristics), I’ve proposed ‘a theory of the compensation for the labor-management relation’ as my unique opinion, and that is a viewpoint, through which perceiving the essencial natue of wage as ‘the compensation for the continuation of labor-management relation’. I think that ‘the theory of the compensation for the labor- management relation’ has many merits in the normative aspects and in the realistic(managerial) aspects too. The merits in the normative aspects are as follows. Firstly, ‘the theory of the compensation for the labor-management relation’ can overcome or dissolve the legal problems of the traditional theories on the essencial nature of wage(theory of the price of labor, theory of the price of labor-force, theory of two-split wage characteristics). Secondly, ‘the theory of the compensation for the labor-management relation’ is harmonious with the characteristic of continuous contract of labor-contract. Thirdly, ‘the theory of the compensation for the labor-management relation’ can include some payments into the sphere of wage, so can expand the sphere of laborer protection - there’re some payments which have not characteristic of ‘the price of labor’ or ‘the price of labor-force’, considering recent practices of corporate compensation. And, the merits in the realistic(managerial) aspects are as below. Firstly, ‘the theory of the compensation for the labor-management relation’ can be compatable with the recent trend of labor-management relation which has tendancy of accentuating the importance of cooperative aspects more than the importance of hostile and combative aspects. Secondly, ‘the theory of the compensation for the labor-management relation’ can be coexident with the recent trend of Business- Administration which regards the characteristic of laborer as Human Resources and emphasizes the importance of Knowledge Management. Thirdly, ‘the theory of the compensation for the labor-management relation’ can be harmonious with the change and the diversification of the types of the labor supply which have been derived from the rapid development of ICT(Informatiopn & Communication Technology). Besides many merits in the normative aspects and in the realistic (managerial) aspects, ‘the theory of the compensation for the labor-management relation’ can give us substantial implications about wage-related legal problems(‘the sphere of wage-deduction during strike’ etc.), thus presents us a new paradigm of wage.