Are some piece rates better than others? Cross-sectional variation in piece rates at a US cotton factory

While piece rates were a common form of payment in manufacturing, historians have rarely tried to understand the cross-sectional structure of piece-rate prices. This paper examines piece rates paid to weavers at a US cotton factory and demonstrates that in most cases expected daily earnings were constant across different piece rates. While some rates did result in higher daily earnings, there is no evidence of gender discrimination in the assignment of such rates.