Voluntary wage and price guidelines have now been adopted as a major element in the government’s anti-inflation program. The pricing behavior of firms and wage demands of labor are considered by a large portion of the population to be incompatible with the social objective of reducing inflation. Restraint in wage and price movements is believed to be necessary. Monetary and fiscal restraint alone apparently have been judged as either not being able to accomplish this objective or as carrying too high a cost, in terms of lost output and employment.