Wages, way'jez, in political economy, the return to labor from production, that is, the share of a product which goes to the labor employed in production. It is distinguished from rent, which is the share of the product returned to landowners by virtue of the use of land in production, and interest, the share of production returned to capital. The term wages is commonly used in a much more restricted sense, that is, to include only the amount paid to hired labor, or, in a still narrower sense, to refer to the remuneration of those engaged in manual labor, as distinguished from the professional classes. In economics, however, no such distinctions are recognized. In the compilation of statistics and in general economic reasoning, a distinction is made between so-called nominal wages and real wages, the former being the wages expressed in money or as an absolute quantity, the latter, in terms of purchasing power. The earliest theory in regard to the nature and origin of wages was that of the so-called physiocrats of France, who held that the return to labor from production always tended to the level at which laborers would consent to live, owing to the tendency of population always to press upon the means of subsistence. This theory though now generally discarded, has been vigorously upheld by the modern socialists, who find in it one of their chief arguments for the overturning of the present social order. A more recent theory is that known as the wages fund theory, which had the support of such distinguished economists as John Stuart Mill, McCulloch and, by inference, Ricardo. These economists declared that wages are advanced from capital; that, therefore, total wages must be limited by the amount of capital existing, or rather by that part of capital which is devoted to the payment of labor. This so-called wages fund being limited the average rate of wages depended upon the number of laborers competing. But this theory in turn has been largely superseded by another, whose first conspicuous advocate in this country was Francis A. Walker. It also received vigorous defense at the hands of Henry George. According to this theory the reward of labor, or wages, is drawn invariably from the product of labor, wages being therefore dependent upon the productivity of labor. The rate of wages is determined by the product of the laborer in the least advantageous situation, since if employers must pay one class of laborers a certain wage, other laborers, though in more advantageous positions, will not consent to labor for less. This rate of wages will evidently be dependent upon many causes, such as the following: An increase in the amount of land available for industry will open a new remunerative field for employment, thus increasing the product of the laborer in the least advantageous position and raising the general rate of wages; labor-saving inventions, by increasing the productivity of labor, will in the long run increase wages. These rules of course do not apply where special circumstances place the laborer on an unequal footing with his employer. See CAPITAL; RENT; INTEREST; POLITICAL ECONOMY.