For work-hardening plastic solids, segmentwise linear yield conditions and the associated flow rules constitute a reasonable compromise between the mathematically convenient but physically unsound total stress-strain laws and the physically sound but mathematically inconvenient incremental laws. They allow total stress-strain laws to be used in the small, but retain the characteristic features of incremental laws in the large. The use of a segmentwise linear yield condition and the associated flow rule is illustrated by the analysis of the bending moments and deflections of a simply supported circular plate that is made of a work-hardening material and subjected to a uniformly distributed transverse load.