Rating of Labour, the setting of rates for labour inputs for carrying out specific jobs. In socialist society, the following rates exist: time rates for carrying out a particular job; manufacturing rates envisaging the making of a certain number of articles per unit of time (hour, shift, etc.); service rates (the number of machines, the size of production premises and other units to be serviced); time rates for servicing (the time set for servicing a unit of equipment, work place or other production unit); rates for the number of workers. Under the capitalist mode of production, labour rates are a means for intensifying labour and creating sweat wage systems (see Wages under Capitalism). Under socialism, rate setting for labour helps in the consistent realisation of the principle From each according to his ability, to each according to his work. Labour rates are used when drawing up current and long-term plans, working out the scientific organisation of labour and production. They serve as one of the main elements in the organisation of wages. The wage rate per rouble of output is set on the basis of technically substantiated labour rates. Labour rating provides a reliable basis for organising socialist emulation and summing its results. In the USSR, labour rating has progressed from the application of experimental rates to the use of scientifically substantiated ones that take account of the 303 organisational, technical, economic, physiological and psychological factors behind work activity. Further, labour rating is being improved in the following main directions: expansion of the elaboration and application of labour rates; a rise in the degree of their scientific substantiation; a considerable increase in the share of technically substantiated rates calculated on the basis of inter-branch and branch rates and norms; a timely revision of the rates and improvement of methodological material required for rate setting. In order to encourage the workers’ initiative in introducing technically substantiated labour rates and revising them in due time, payment of lump-sums is envisaged out of the money saved after revision of these rates. The USSR State Committee for Labour and Social Questions is empowered, on agreement with the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, to allow ministries and departments to introduce, in the production associations (enterprises) of certain industries, higher (up to 20 per cent) rates when working according to progressive, technically substantiated rates.