[lbo-talk] Merit Pay

123hop at comcast.net 123hop at comcast.net
Mon Feb 28 11:19:29 PST 2011


There are all kinds of bad things about merit pay. Here are some: it discourages group feeling and cooperation. It pits teachers against one another; it discourages teachers from engaging with difficult students. It makes it look like teaching is an individual project.

All this seriously distorts our understanding of teaching.

Joanna

----- Original Message ----- From: "Wojtek S" <wsoko52 at gmail.com> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Sent: Monday, February 28, 2011 9:15:21 AM Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Merit Pay

[WS:] Interesting. But in the example that you quote the problem seems to lie not with pay based on one's "merits" or performance, but in including in the definition of performance factors that are outside the control of the employee. This is analogous to, say, defining teacher's merits by the achievements (no matter how measured) of his/her students. Obviously, many critical factors that affect student's performance, such as motivation, availability for instruction, background knowledge or cognitive ability are not controlled by the teacher. So the problem is not that pay is linked to merits, which would be difficult to argue against, but how merits are defined.

Wojtek

On Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 12:33 AM, michael perelman <michael.perelman3 at gmail.com> wrote:
> One of the knocks on collective bargaining is that employers should be able
> to pay people what they are worth.  An interesting example of this
> phenomenon came in the realm of professional football.  In January 2011, Pro
> Bowl cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha's contract was voided because his contract
> included a little-known clause allowed the team to void his contract if he
> didn't achieve his not-likely-to-be-earned incentives in 2010 -- and he
> didn't.  One reason for his failure to earn his incentives was that he was
> so effective that quarterbacks would not to pass to someone near him.
>  Consequently, he did not have any interceptions.
> --
> Michael Perelman
> Economics Department
> California State University
> Chico, CA
> 95929
>
> mperelman at csuchico.edu
>
> 530 898 5321
> fax 530 898 5901
> http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>

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