By delaying their planned implementation of a teacher's merit pay plan, by one year, the Florida legislature was able to cut their current budget by 1.4% (Sigo, 2007)
Union Resistance Supporting Mediocrity: Sadly, as mentioned, there has been strong opposition to the merit pay plan for teachers, and much of this opposition has come from teachers' unions. Even erasing the subjective fear of merit pay, and replacing it with measurable, objective assessments, union opposition comes also because they fear that this type of system will weaken their collective bargaining power and doubt money can provide motivation needed (Viadero, 2007)
Although the concept of merit pay may be revolutionary for the current teaching profession, it is not a new idea. The concept was first introduced in England, in 1710 (Wilms & Chapleau, 1999)
Communication begins with an open forum meeting to decide what aspects should be measured, what goals are appropriate, and the incentives to be rewarded. Core competencies must be identified by staff members and as in the case of nurses or librarians the process of expressing these competencies must be decided (Brotherton, 2003)
Pay for performance, or alternately referred to as 'merit pay' is a system in which financial incentive is used to elicit certain levels of performance. This system of pay has been used in the educational system for nearly 300 years, and saw a strong revival in the 1980s (Gratz, 2005)
First, the system must be aligned with the strategic direction of the district. Also, in order to attract, motivate and retain the best teachers available, the system must be competitive in financial rewards (Rishell & Becker, 2004)
The teachers can benefit from the opportunity for increased financial compensation, the students can benefit from more effective teaching, and the district can benefit from better schools. In addition, this trend of utilizing pay for performance system, is certain to become a more significant factor in the years to come, in attracting, motivating and retaining the best teachers available (Sturman, Trevor, Boudreau, & Gerhart, 2003)
¶ … employment pay program identified as pay for performance have been part of the business landscape for many years (Bloom)
The major goal of any compensation program should be to motivate employees to do their best. Since the dawning of globalization the United States has seen its world market share begin to erode and employers have been experimenting with methods to increase productivity while keeping costs low in order to allow American businesses to remain competitive on the world stage (Kose)
Under traditional compensation programs employees received their pay regardless of how well they performed. The programs that employers have begun using go under a number of vernacular names such as merit pay, variable pay, alternative pay, and pay for performance (Koss)
If the involved workforce is motive by factors other than money a pay for performance system will be ineffectual. Edward Lawler (Lawler), one of the most respected experts in the area of human resources, describes the conditions that permit the effective use of money as a motivator: employees attach a high value to pay, employees believe good performance will result in higher pay, employees have enough control over the job that their own efforts can have a material impact, and superior performance leads to more positive than negative results (e
True pay for performance is more formalized than an occasional bonus. It is variable compensation that must be re-earned each year and does not permanently increase base salary (Silva)
A properly conceived pay for performance program, however, shifts the emphasis from preciseness to incentives. There can be little argument that motivation is a key element in the success and failure of any business (Steers)
A motivated workforce is more productive and more efficient. As we live in a money oriented world, money is a far better motivator than nearly any other compensation device and so it is understandable that compensating job performance through the awarding of money is a far better motivator than mere praise or personal satisfaction (Tang)
This paper will examine the effectiveness of such programs and the disadvantages for employers and employees. Pay for performance programs are designed to compensate teachers based on how well their students perform or on observed behaviors in the classrooms (Chait & Miller, 2009)
(2009) research suggests that while principals are quite accurate at identifying very high and very low performers, but not as accurate at assessing teacher performance in the middle of the range. "Research also suggests that there is a tendency for principals to be overly lenient with their ratings and to give higher than deserved performance evaluations, which will fail to differentiate pay over time" (Prince et al