IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/iza/izawol/journly2015n152.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Performance-related pay and labor productivity

Author

Listed:
  • Claudio Lucifora

    (Università Cattolica, Italy, LSE, UK, and IZA, Germany)

Abstract

Many firms offer employees a remuneration package that links pay to performance as a means of motivation. It also improves efficiency and reduces turnover and absenteeism. The effects on productivity depend on the type of scheme employed (individual or group performance) and its design (commissions, piece-rate or sharing schemes). Individual incentives demonstrate the largest effect, while group or team incentives are smaller in magnitude. The case for government intervention through tax breaks and other financial incentives is highly debated due to differences across firms and the potential for economic inefficiencies.

Suggested Citation

  • Claudio Lucifora, 2015. "Performance-related pay and labor productivity," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 152-152, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izawol:journl:y:2015:n:152
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://wol.iza.org/articles/performance-related-pay-and-labor-productivity-1.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://wol.iza.org/articles/performance-related-pay-and-labor-productivity
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rachel Griffith & Andrew Neely, 2009. "Performance Pay and Managerial Experience in Multitask Teams: Evidence from within a Firm," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 27(1), pages 49-82, January.
    2. repec:iza:izawol:journl:y:2015:p:152 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Canice Prendergast, 1999. "The Provision of Incentives in Firms," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(1), pages 7-63, March.
    4. Alex Bryson & Richard Freeman & Claudio Lucifora & Michele Pellizzari & Virginie Perotin, 2012. "Paying for Performance: Incentive Pay Schemes and Employees' Financial Participation," CEP Discussion Papers dp1112, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    5. Edward P. Lazear, 2000. "Performance Pay and Productivity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(5), pages 1346-1361, December.
    6. Claudio Lucifora & Federica Origo, 2015. "Performance-Related Pay and Firm Productivity," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 68(3), pages 606-632, May.
    7. Oriana Bandiera & Iwan Barankay & Imran Rasul, 2007. "Incentives for Managers and Inequality among Workers: Evidence from a Firm-Level Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(2), pages 729-773.
    8. Kruse, Douglas L. & Freeman, Richard B. & Blasi, Joseph R. (ed.), 2010. "Shared Capitalism at Work," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226056951, September.
    9. Canice Prendergast, 2008. "Intrinsic Motivation and Incentives," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(2), pages 201-205, May.
    10. Boeri, Tito & Lucifora, Claudio & Murphy, Kevin J. (ed.), 2013. "Executive Remuneration and Employee Performance-Related Pay: A Transatlantic Perspective," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199669806.
    11. Anne Gielen & Marcel Kerkhofs & Jan Ours, 2010. "How performance related pay affects productivity and employment," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 23(1), pages 291-301, January.
    12. Simon Burgess & Marisa Ratto, 2003. "The Role of Incentives in the Public Sector: Issues and Evidence," The Centre for Market and Public Organisation 03/071, The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol, UK.
    13. Simon Burgess & Marisa Ratto, 2003. "The Role of Incentives in the Public Sector: Issues and Evidence," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 19(2), pages 285-300, Summer.
    14. Richard B. Freeman & Joseph R. Blasi & Douglas L. Kruse, 2010. "Introduction to "Shared Capitalism at Work: Employee Ownership, Profit and Gain Sharing, and Broad-based Stock Options"," NBER Chapters, in: Shared Capitalism at Work: Employee Ownership, Profit and Gain Sharing, and Broad-based Stock Options, pages 1-37, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Knez, Marc & Simester, Duncan, 2001. "Firm-Wide Incentives and Mutual Monitoring at Continental Airlines," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 19(4), pages 743-772, October.
    16. Cable, John & Wilson, Nicholas, 1990. "Profit-Sharing and Productivity: Some Further Evidence," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 100(401), pages 550-555, June.
    17. Douglas L. Kruse & Richard B. Freeman & Joseph R. Blasi, 2010. "Shared Capitalism at Work: Employee Ownership, Profit and Gain Sharing, and Broad-based Stock Options," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number krus08-1.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Riccardo Leoni, 2018. "Efficienza ed efficacia della contrattazione integrativa aziendale. Una rassegna della letteratura empirica italiana," Economia & lavoro, Carocci editore, issue 1, pages 131-170.
    2. Ricardo Pagan & Miguel Ángel Malo, 2021. "Performance Appraisal and Job Satisfaction for Workers Without and With Disabilities by Gender," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 153(3), pages 1011-1039, February.
    3. Nikolaos Georgantzis & Efi Vasileiou & Iordanis Kotzaivazoglou, 2017. "Peer norm guesses and self-reported attitudes towards performance-related pay," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(4), pages 1-15, April.
    4. Jirjahn, Uwe & Mohrenweiser, Jens, 2023. "Variable Payment Schemes and Productivity: Do Individual-Based Schemes Really Have a Stronger Influence than Collective Ones?," IZA Discussion Papers 16267, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Akwasi Ampofo & Firmin Doko Tchatoka, 2019. "Reducing Public‐Private Sector Pay Differentials: The Single Spine Pay Policy As A Natural Experiment In Ghana," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 57(1), pages 283-315, January.
    6. Andrea Garnero & François Rycx & Isabelle Terraz, 2020. "Productivity and Wage Effects of Firm‐Level Collective Agreements: Evidence from Belgian Linked Panel Data," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 58(4), pages 936-972, December.
    7. Mills, Brian M., 2017. "Technological innovations in monitoring and evaluation: Evidence of performance impacts among Major League Baseball umpires," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 189-199.
    8. Devicienti, Francesco & Manello, Alessandro & Vannoni, Davide, 2017. "Technical efficiency, unions and decentralized labor contracts," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 260(3), pages 1129-1141.
    9. Andreas Peichl & Julia Schricker & Henrike von Platen & Ulf Rinne & Hilmar Schneider & Ute Klammer & Christina Boll & Ingo Weller & Lena Göbel, 2019. "Entgelttransparenzgesetz gegen Lohndiskriminierung: Viel Aufwand, wenig Nutzen?," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 72(04), pages 03-26, February.
    10. Uwe Jirjahn, 2015. "Performance Pay and Productivity: The Moderating Role of a High-Wage Policy," Research Papers in Economics 2015-04, University of Trier, Department of Economics.
    11. Belloc, Filippo, 2022. "Profit sharing and innovation across organizational layers," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 598-623.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ricardo Pagan & Miguel Ángel Malo, 2021. "Performance Appraisal and Job Satisfaction for Workers Without and With Disabilities by Gender," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 153(3), pages 1011-1039, February.
    2. Jirjahn, Uwe & Mohrenweiser, Jens, 2023. "Variable Payment Schemes and Productivity: Do Individual-Based Schemes Really Have a Stronger Influence than Collective Ones?," IZA Discussion Papers 16267, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Mirella Damiani & Fabrizio Pompei & Andrea Ricci, 2023. "Tax breaks for incentive pay, productivity and wages: Evidence from a reform in Italy," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 61(1), pages 188-213, March.
    4. Kato, Takao & Kauhanen, Antti, 2013. "Performance Pay and Enterprise Productivity: The Details Matter," ETLA Working Papers 21, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    5. Pierre Koning & J. Vyrastekova & S. Onderstal, 2006. "Team incentives in public organisations; an experimental study," CPB Discussion Paper 60, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    6. Simon Burgess & Carol Propper & Marisa Ratto & Emma Tominey, 2017. "Incentives in the Public Sector: Evidence from a Government Agency," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(605), pages 117-141, October.
    7. Helen Simpson, 2009. "Productivity In Public Services," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(2), pages 250-276, April.
    8. Petri Böckerman & Alex Bryson & Pekka Ilmakunnas, 2013. "Does high involvement management lead to higher pay?," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 176(4), pages 861-885, October.
    9. Bryson, Alex & Clark, Andrew E. & Freeman, Richard B. & Green, Colin P., 2016. "Share capitalism and worker wellbeing," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 151-158.
    10. Uwe Jirjahn & Jens Mohrenweiser, 2019. "Performance Pay and Applicant Screening," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 57(3), pages 540-575, September.
    11. Fochmann, Martin & Sachs, Florian & Weimann, Joachim, 2019. "Managing wages: Fairness norms of low- and high-performing team members," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 238, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    12. Mirella Damiani & Fabrizio Pompei & Andrea Ricci, 2013. "Wages and Labour Productivity: the role of performance-related pay in Italian firms," Quaderni del Dipartimento di Economia, Finanza e Statistica 124/2013, Università di Perugia, Dipartimento Economia.
    13. Stefania Cardinaleschi & Mirella Damiani & Fabrizio Pompei, 2020. "Knowledge-intensive sectors and the role of collective performance-related pay," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(5), pages 480-512, May.
    14. Jana Vyrastekova & Sander Onderstal & Pierre Koning, 2012. "Self-selection and the power of incentive schemes: an experimental study," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(32), pages 4211-4219, November.
    15. Marco A. Barrenechea-Mendez & Sara Martinez-de-Morentin, 2021. "Profit Sharing, Interconnected Autonomous Teams, and Employee Productivity," Documentos de Trabajo - Lan Gaiak Departamento de Economía - Universidad Pública de Navarra 2107, Departamento de Economía - Universidad Pública de Navarra.
    16. Long, Richard J. & Fang, Tony, 2013. "Profit Sharing and Workplace Productivity: Does Teamwork Play a Role?," IZA Discussion Papers 7869, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. repec:dau:papers:123456789/12197 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Mirella Damiani & Fabrizio Pompei & Andrea Ricci, 2016. "Performance related pay, productivity and wages in Italy: a quantile regression approach," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 37(2), pages 344-371, May.
    19. Matteo Bugamelli & Francesca Lotti & Monica Amici & Emanuela Ciapanna & Fabrizio Colonna & Francesco D�Amuri & Silvia Giacomelli & Andrea Linarello & Francesco Manaresi & Giuliana Palumbo & Filippo , 2018. "Productivity growth in Italy: a tale of a slow-motion change," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 422, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    20. Belloc, Filippo, 2022. "Profit sharing and innovation across organizational layers," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 598-623.
    21. Baethge, Caroline & Fiedler, Marina, 2016. "Aligning mission preferences: Does self-selection foster performance in working groups?," Passauer Diskussionspapiere, Betriebswirtschaftliche Reihe B-18-16, University of Passau, Faculty of Business and Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    performance-related pay; productivity; pay incentives; financial participation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J33 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Compensation Packages; Payment Methods
    • J52 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Dispute Resolution: Strikes, Arbitration, and Mediation
    • L61 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Metals and Metal Products; Cement; Glass; Ceramics

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izawol:journl:y:2015:n:152. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.