Indescriminate pay harms employees

Equality for all is often cited as the golden standard, but in the world of employee wages this mantra causes trouble. This is because, while discrimination on the basis of gender, age, race, or religion is often a harmful stereotype, discrimination on the basis of performance - at least where the performance is equally measured and applied - is a benefit to the productive worker and a cure for the lazy (Burkett).

Employees who demonstrate skill and character ought to be rewarded. “The laborer deserves his wages,” (ESV, 1Ti 5:18) and those wages ought to reflect the effort and skill expended in the labor. Not only is this right, but reward rightly applied encourages others to develop greater skill and to put forth more effort.

Importance

What happens if wages are given regardless of performance? The employees settle to the lowest common denominator. That is, the laziest person in the group will set the pace for the rest of the employees. After all, if that person gets recognized with pay the same as I, why would I put forth more effort than he?

Because this is such a powerful rule that can either harm or help one’s business, it is important to give financial rewards for truly excellent performance. The hint of favoritism or injustice will destroy the positive effect and leave employees unable to predict whether their pay is reflected by their performance at all. Wise measurements and clear benchmarks are necessary to ensure employees can correlate their pay to their performance and can understand why others are rewarded or not without resorting to speculation.

Application

Thanking employees for their efforts is important, giving critical feedback is necessary, but nothing speaks so loud as money. On the national level, despite our sincere appreciation for school teachers, social workers, janitors, and other civil servants, the pay we give them proves we don’t actually value their work in the way our words indicate. While Amie’s work at a federally qualified health center has meant a $15 Target gift card for her loyalty (which all receive), I am given an enormous bonus every year based on our company’s and my individual performance. One of the reasons I value for-profit business is because there is more freedom to balance this inequality than is found in most non-profit environments (although exceptions exist, I hope). Therefore I want to be sure the work I expect is clear and well benchmarked, and exceptional work is rewarded financially.

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