piece-work

A worker completes several units of piece-work at a small workshop table.

Definition

Noun (uncountable) Work that is paid for according to the amount produced or completed, rather than by the hour or day. In piece-work, a worker earns a fixed rate for each unit of output (e.g., each item made, each task finished), not for the time spent working.

Usage Examples

• (Payment is per garment sewn, not per hour.)
• (Work is compensated by the number of completed items.)
• (Payment per unit encourages high output but may sacrifice quality.)

Advanced Usage

• "to be on piece-work": to be employed under a system where pay is based on output.

  • She was on piece-work at the electronics assembly plant, earning $0.50 per circuit board. (Her income depended entirely on the number of boards she assembled.)

• "piece-work rate": the fixed amount paid per unit of work.

  • The piece-work rate for harvesting apples was $2 per basket. (Each basket picked earned the worker $2.)

Variants and Related Words

• Pieceworker (n): a person who does piece-work.

  • Pieceworkers often have flexible hours but no guaranteed minimum income. (A worker paid by output.)

• Piecework (n): alternative spelling of piece-work (also written as one word).

  • The contract specified piecework terms for all temporary staff. (Same meaning as piece-work.)

Synonyms

• Task work: work paid per task or job, often used for short-term assignments.
• Output-based pay: a system where wages are tied to the quantity of goods produced.

Related Idioms

• "Work by the piece": to be paid per item rather than per hour.

  • In the old tailor shops, everyone worked by the piece. (Payment was per garment completed.)

• "Piecemeal work": work done in small, separate parts (sometimes confused with piece-work, but emphasizes fragmentation rather than payment method).

  • The renovation was done as piecemeal work, with each room finished separately. (Done in stages, not necessarily piece-work.)