The value of your labor is a very subjective thing. What is valuable to one person is a complete waste of time to another person, and therefore value of time spent doing a task is not something that can be easily quantified. An examination of relative labor value is useful because it can teach us what we can and can't do within the boundaries of society in order to increase the value of our labor.
Definitions
What is labor?
For our analysis here, labor is any action you perform that is not directly tied to your subsistence. For example , eating food is not considered labor for our purposes. Writing a review of the meal you ate is labor however, because that information might provide value to someone else.
What is value?
Value can be a noun or a verb. In it's noun form, value is the importance, worth or usefulness of something. In it's verb form, value is the act of estimating somethings worth. for example "His car was valued at $4,500 in Kelly Blue book"
now that we have a few definitions out of the way, let's analyze how labor and value are tied together.
What is my time worth?
We can immediately see how an hours worth of labor time is valued subjectively based on the person paying for the good or service. To my employer, I am worth about $25 USD for each hour of time I give them. For the sake of clarity, I am not including any non-monetary compensation, like health insurance or company match savings plans.
When I work on roofs, rough framing or cutting and trimming trees, I charge $20 per hr of my time. I might be able to charge more, but I enjoy the work (a different measure of value) and I don't want to lose a job because I've priced my labor above the relative value of that labor to the customer.
When I blog on Steemit, if it takes me an hour to write a post, and the payout is $10, then the value of that time could be looked at as $10/hr. But let's say someone re-steems my post (please do!) and I get three new followers. I've now expanded my value without a quantifying dollar amount to that added value. The next post I write might catch the attention of one of those new followers, and they might have a bigger influence (another non-monetary measure of value) in the community. This is how non-monetary value can be measured within a community.
These examples show how each segment of time is valued differently based on a variety of factors. This leads me to my next point, which is....
Maximizing the value of your labor
The value of your labor cannot simply be measured in currency. There are many other subjective measures of value that can't be quantified in dollar signs (or any other currency denominations). One measurement of value is respect, or reputation. In some places, and in some societies and cultures, your reputation is the only measure of value you need.
How do we maximize our value though? Its not just about making more dollars per hr, it's about building a persona, and building a community around you that respects you and respects your word. The best and easiest way to do this is by not lying. showing people that your word cannot be trusted is a sure fire way to lose the value of who you are. If you continue to be honest in all your dealings, then a reputation builds around you, and people begin to value your words and your actions beyond the dollar amount that they are willing to pay.
Another way to maximize your value exponentially is to...
Make your downtime more valuable
I drive about 50 minutes one way to work. rounding up that's two hrs a day, ten hrs a week and about 500 hrs per year, give or take a few hr for vacation days. Maximizing that downtime into time that has value is a key ingredient in not only earning more, but increasing your subjective value to others. Looking at that 500 hrs a year as useful time that can be shaped into something of value is a very hard thing to do, because we have been trained that we simply drive to work to get to work. If we can find ways to utilize that downtime to our advantage, we have increased the value of that time from something that was very low in value to a high-value use of time. I've spent the 500 hrs a year doing many things, some of which failed, but we can learn from our failures, and then take a value measurement from that in order to maximize our future downtime. The next endeavor I have thought about to use that time wisely is a morning and afternoon podcast while driving. Maybe someone would want to listen to my ramblings for and hr and a half each day.
By maximizing our downtime and reassessing our understanding of the value of our labor, we can not just maximize our labor time, but we can exponentially increase the value of that labor over time.
Please comment below on ways you have made your downtime work for you, and the ways that you have re-evaluated the value of your labor. What is the value of reputation to you, and how can we work together to be more efficient with the time that we are given?