Cool trivia about "scrip": I learned this term in the context of charitable donations. Folks at church would purchase "scrip" coupons or vouchers which were only good at a certain store, like the big grocery on the corner. Then we'd use the scrip to purchase whatever we wanted, and a portion of our scrip money was donated to the church (or whatever charity sold it to us.)
Now we use "eScrip" which is really streamlined. We go into our grocery store account and register a charity number with them, and every purchase is credited to that charity for a certain percentage of the proceeds.
But I suppose the name is the same because charitable scrip is only good with a certain vendor, and in the old days, the "paper days" it needed to be purchased in advance, like a gift card, from the target charity, rather than the store itself, and we couldn't convert it back into cash.
So for us in the 21st century, "scrip" is a good thing, a voluntary program, a way to make charitable donations without making charitable donations.
Once awhile ago, my employer called me into the office and said they wanted to increase my pay, but they knew I'd lose some benefits if my income increased. They said if I work enough extra hours, they'd pay me with gift cards beyond my agreed salary. Gift cards for grocery stores, or restaurants, or whatever specific purpose. (my employer was not a grocery store nor a restaurant.)
I declined. I suppose there are a lot of legal regulations that prevent employers from paying "in-kind wages" rather than cash money. But "in-kind" is still a line item on the forms I fill out. I frankly don't see much wrong with "in-kind" wages if the company town provides all essentials and necessities, and hopefully workers can earn a certain percentage of cash for incidentals.
By the way, in mining towns or logging camps, these were often quite remote outposts, where travel and shipping was extremely difficult for workers, and so the company town NEEDED to provide everything, or nobody could live there! And the workers had little hope of calling up Amazon and having a color teevee delivered!!! Cash would be nigh-on useless, and scrip was quite a logical substitute.
The worker-exploitation aspects of scrip are probably quite separate and distinct from the realities and logistics of a company providing goods and amenities, in spite of how Wikipedia makes it sound so intrinsically evil. Some are good at it, most aren't; what do you expect?
Now we use "eScrip" which is really streamlined. We go into our grocery store account and register a charity number with them, and every purchase is credited to that charity for a certain percentage of the proceeds.
But I suppose the name is the same because charitable scrip is only good with a certain vendor, and in the old days, the "paper days" it needed to be purchased in advance, like a gift card, from the target charity, rather than the store itself, and we couldn't convert it back into cash.
So for us in the 21st century, "scrip" is a good thing, a voluntary program, a way to make charitable donations without making charitable donations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrip#Company_scrip
Once awhile ago, my employer called me into the office and said they wanted to increase my pay, but they knew I'd lose some benefits if my income increased. They said if I work enough extra hours, they'd pay me with gift cards beyond my agreed salary. Gift cards for grocery stores, or restaurants, or whatever specific purpose. (my employer was not a grocery store nor a restaurant.)
I declined. I suppose there are a lot of legal regulations that prevent employers from paying "in-kind wages" rather than cash money. But "in-kind" is still a line item on the forms I fill out. I frankly don't see much wrong with "in-kind" wages if the company town provides all essentials and necessities, and hopefully workers can earn a certain percentage of cash for incidentals.
By the way, in mining towns or logging camps, these were often quite remote outposts, where travel and shipping was extremely difficult for workers, and so the company town NEEDED to provide everything, or nobody could live there! And the workers had little hope of calling up Amazon and having a color teevee delivered!!! Cash would be nigh-on useless, and scrip was quite a logical substitute.
The worker-exploitation aspects of scrip are probably quite separate and distinct from the realities and logistics of a company providing goods and amenities, in spite of how Wikipedia makes it sound so intrinsically evil. Some are good at it, most aren't; what do you expect?