Pay Structure Decisions

Editor's Notes

• #2: Multimedia Lecture Support Package to Accompany Basic Marketing Lecture Script 6- Chapter 11 discusses the nature of the pay structure and its component parts, the pay level, and the job structurePay is a powerful tool for furthering the organization’s strategic goals. First, pay has a large impact on employee attitudes and behaviors. It influences the kind of employees who are attracted to (and remain with) the organization, and it can be a powerful tool for aligning current employees’ interests with those of the broader organization. Second, employee compensation is typically a significant organizational cost and thus requires close scrutiny. This chapter’s focus is on why and how organizations attach pay policies to jobs. As the number of employees in an organization increases, so too does the number of human resource management decisions of jobs in an organization.
• #3: Multimedia Lecture Support Package to Accompany Basic Marketing Lecture Script 6- Learning Objectives: List major decision areas and concepts in employee compensation management. Describe major administrative tools used to manage employee compensation. Explain the importance of competitivelabor-market and product-market forces in compensation decisions. Discuss the significance of process issues such as communication in compensation management.
• #4: Multimedia Lecture Support Package to Accompany Basic Marketing Lecture Script 6- Learning Objectives, continued: Describe new developments in pay structure designs. Explain where U. S. stands on pay issues from an international perspective. Explain reasons for executive pay controversy. Describe the regulatory framework for employee compensation.
• #5: Multimedia Lecture Support Package to Accompany Basic Marketing Lecture Script 6- From employer’s view: Pay is critical in attaining strategic goals. Pay impacts employee attitudes and behaviors. Employee compensation is significant organizational cost. From the employees’ point of view , policies having to do with wages, salaries, and other earnings affect their overall income and thus their standard of living. Both level of pay and fairness compared with others’ pay are important
• #6: Multimedia Lecture Support Package to Accompany Basic Marketing Lecture Script 6- Pay decisions can be broken into two major areas: Pay Structure and Individual Pay. Pay structure refers to the relative pay of different jobs (job structure) and how much they are paid (level). Pay level is the average pay in organizations, including wages, salaries, and bonuses. Job structure is the relative pay of jobs in organizations (i.e., the range of pay often expressed by salary grades). Although each employee is unique and thus requires some degree of individualized treatment, standardizing the treatment of similar employees (those with similar jobs) can help greatly to make compensation administration and decision making more manageable and more equitable. Thus pay policies are often attached to particular jobs rather than tailored entirely to individual employeesto make the process more manageable and equitable.
• #7: Multimedia Lecture Support Package to Accompany Basic Marketing Lecture Script 6- Equity theory describes a process in which people evaluate the fairness of their pay by comparing their pay to that of other people.A person will compare his or her ratio of perceived outcomes (e.g., pay, benefits, etc.) to perceived inputs (e.g., education, effort, experience) to the ratio of a comparison other.Employees evaluate their pay by comparing it with what others get paid, and their work attitudes and behaviors are influenced by such comparisonIf the person's ratio is higher, research suggests that rationalization will occur to account for the perceived overpayment.If the comparison other's ratio is higher, the person may attempt to restore equity by reducing one's inputs (e.g., working less), increasing one's outcomes (e.g., asking for a raise, theft), or leaving the company.Employee perceptions are what determine their evaluation. Employees may have different information or make different comparisons than management.The fact that management believes its employees are paid well compared with those of other companies does not necessarily translate into employees’ beliefs. Two types of employee social comparisons of pay are especially relevant in making pay level and job structure decisions. (See Table 11.2.) First, external equity pay comparisons focus on what employees in other organizations are paid for doing the same general job. Such comparisons are likely to influence the decisions of applicants to accept job offers as well as the attitudes and decisions of employees about whetherto stay with an organization or take a job elsewhere. The organization’s choice of pay level influences its employees’ external pay comparisons and their consequences. A market pay survey is the primary administrative tool organizations use in choosing a pay level.Second, internal equity pay comparisons focus on what employees within the same organization, but in different jobs, are paid. Employees make comparisons with lower- level jobs, jobs at the same level (but perhaps in different skill areas or product divisions), and jobs at higher levels. These comparisons may influence general attitudes of employees; their willingness to transfer to other jobs within the organization; their willingness to accept promotions; their inclination to cooperate across jobs, functional areas, or product groups; and their commitment to the organization. The organization’s choice of job structure influences its employees’ internal comparisons and their consequences. Job evaluation is the administrative tool organizations use to design job structures. Employees make internal equity pay comparisons with others performing the same job.
• #8: Multimedia Lecture Support Package to Accompany Basic Marketing Lecture Script 6- An organization faces two important competitive market challenges in deciding what to pay its employees: product market competition and labor market competition. An organization that has higher labor costs than its competitors will have to charge higher prices for products of similar quality.If an organization is not competitive, it will fail to attract and retain sufficient numbers of high‑quality employees. This will likely lead to a loss of sales to the competition. Labor‑market competition places a lower bound on pay levels. If an organization is not competitive, it will fail to attract and retain sufficient numbers of high‑quality employees.
• #9: Multimedia Lecture Support Package to Accompany Basic Marketing Lecture Script 6- This is a philosophy that considers employees to be an investment that will yield valuable returns.Because organizations have to compete in the labor market, they should consider their employees not just as a cost but as a resource in which the organization has invested and from which it expects valuable returns. Although controlling costs directly affects an organization’s ability to compete in the product market, the organization’s competitive position can be compromised if costs are kept low at the expense of employee productivity and quality. Having higher labor costs than your competitors is not necessarily bad if you also have the best and most effective workforce, one that produces more products of better quality. Pay policies and programs are one of the most important human resource tools for encouraging desired employee behaviors and discouraging undesired behaviors. Therefore, they must be evaluated not just in terms of costs but in terms of the returns they generate—how they attract, retain, and motivate a high-quality workforce. Controlling costs through noncompetitive pay can result in low employee productivity and quality.
• #10: Multimedia Lecture Support Package to Accompany Basic Marketing Lecture Script 6- Deciding pay is discretionary, with a broad range. The organization has to decide whether to pay at, below, or above the market average. The benefits of higher wages may outweigh higher costs when the organization's tech­nology or structure depends on highly skilled employees or when the organization has difficulty observing and monitoring employee performance. The organization has to decide whether to pay at, below, or above the market average. Efficiency wage theory states that wages influence worker productivity. The theory is that employees who are paid more than they would be paid elsewhere will be reluctant to shirk because they wish to retain their good jobs. The benefits of higher wages may outweigh higher costs when the organization's technology or structure depends on highly skilled employees or when the organization has difficulty observing and monitoring employee performance.
• #11: Multimedia Lecture Support Package to Accompany Basic Marketing Lecture Script 6- Benchmarking in this situation is done bypay surveysthatprovide information on the going rates of pay of the competition.Benchmarking is typically accomplished through use of pay surveys, which provide information on going rates of pay among competing organizations.The following issues must be determined before pay surveys are used: Which employers should be included in the survey? Which jobs are included in the survey? If multiple surveys are used, how are all the rates of pay weighted and combined? Knowing what other organizations are paying andknowing what those organizations are getting in return for their investment in employees is helpful. To find that out, some organizations examine ratios such as revenues/employees and revenues/labor cost.
• #12: Multimedia Lecture Support Package to Accompany Basic Marketing Lecture Script 6- As well as knowing what other organizations are paying, it is necessary to know what those organizations are getting in return for their investment in employees. Ratios such as revenues to employees or revenues to labor cost could be used.
• #13: Multimedia Lecture Support Package to Accompany Basic Marketing Lecture Script 6- Use of rate ranges permit a company to recognize differences in employee performance. Different employees in the same job may have different pay rates. Key jobs are benchmark jobs that have relatively stable content and are common to many organizations so that market‑pay survey data can be obtained. Nonkey jobs are unique to organizations and cannot be directly valued or compared through the use of market surveys. For example: Typical key jobs would include administrative assistant, department manager, controls engineer, and so on.
• #14: Multimedia Lecture Support Package to Accompany Basic Marketing Lecture Script 6- A job structure refers to the relative worth of various jobs in the organization, based on internal comparisons. A job evaluation system is composed of compensable factors and a weighting scheme based on the importance of each compensable factor to the organization. Compensable factors are characteristics of jobs that an organization values and chooses to pay for. These characteristics may include job complexity, working conditions, required education, required experience, and responsibility. Most job evaluation systems use several compensable factors. Job analysis provides basic descriptive information on job attributes, and the job evaluation process assigns values to these compensable factors. An administrative procedure used to measure internal job worth. Compensable Job evaluation is an administrative procedure that measures a job's internal worth to the organization.
• #15: Multimedia Lecture Support Package to Accompany Basic Marketing Lecture Script 6- Includes examining and balancing both internal and external comparisons. There are significant differences in employers in terms of whether they place priority on internal or external comparisons. Three pay‑setting approaches include the market survey approach, the pay policy lineand pay grades. Disadvantages of using grades are that some jobs may be underpaid while others may be overpaid. Market survey approach - The greatest emphasis is on external comparisons. It bases pay on market surveys that cover as many key jobs as possible. Pay-policy line - A mathematical expression that describes the relationship between a job’s pay and its job evaluation points. Pay grades - Grouping jobs of similar worth or content together for pay administration purposes. Range spread is the distance between the minimum and maximum amounts in a pay grade.
• #16: Multimedia Lecture Support Package to Accompany Basic Marketing Lecture Script 6- The relative worth of jobs is quite similar overall, whether based on job evaluation or pay survey data. However, some inconsistencies do arise. In resolving the conflict, emphasizing the internal data would create a situation of overpaying jobs that are paid less in the market, which drives up labor costs (and creates product -­ market problems).If external market data are emphasized and a job is paid lower internally, the comparisons that employees make internally would result in dissatisfaction.There are no right answers. An organization should consider its strategy and what jobs and/or functions will be critical for success. . Also, external comparisons deserve greater weight because organizations are finding it increasingly difficult to ignore market competitive pressures.
• #17: Multimedia Lecture Support Package to Accompany Basic Marketing Lecture Script 6- The pay structure represents policy, but practice may not always coincide.Pay structure influences compensation costs in a number of ways. Most obviously, the pay level at which the structure is pegged influences these costs. However, this is only part of the story. The pay structure represents the organization’s intended policy, but actual practice may not coincide with it. One way to examine the difference between policy and practice is to compute a compa-­ratio ,which is the actual average pay for grade/midpoint pay for grade. The compa-ratio directly assesses the degree to which actual pay is consistent with the pay policy. between actual and intended pay.
• #18: Multimedia Lecture Support Package to Accompany Basic Marketing Lecture Script 6- Pay structures can differ substantially across countries both in terms of their level and in terms of the relative worth of jobs. These differentials are intended to prevent inequitable treatment of employees who work in more expensive parts of the country. Although expatriate pay and benefits have been linked more closely to the home country, this link appears to be slowly weakening and now depends more on the nature and length of the assignment.
• #19: Multimedia Lecture Support Package to Accompany Basic Marketing Lecture Script 6- Since pay decisions might be viewed in different ways by different groups in the organization and technology rarely provides a "right" answer, how decisions are made and communicated is critical. Participation should involve both those who will manage the process and those who will be affected by it (HR staff and line managers). The consequences of not communicating effectively are described in a study in which a group that received pay cuts, but to which was communicated adequate information and remorse, engaged in significantly less theft after the pay cut than a group to whom communication was inadequate. Employees increasingly have access to salary survey information, which is likely to result in more comparisons and thus a greater need for effective communication. Managers play the most crucial communication role because of their day-to-day interactions with their employees. Therefore, they must be prepared to explain why the pay structure is designed as it is and to judge whether employee concerns about the structure need to be addressed with changes to the structure. One common issue is deciding when a job needs to be reclassified because of substantial changes in its content. If an employee takes on more responsibility, she will often ask the manager for assistance in making the case for increased pay for the job.
• #20: Multimedia Lecture Support Package to Accompany Basic Marketing Lecture Script 6- Although most commonly used, job‑based pay structures can create the following problems: They encourage bureaucracy. They reinforce top‑down decision making as well as status differentials. The bureaucracy, time, and cost required to generate and update job descriptions and job evaluations can become a barrier to change. The job‑based structure may not reward desired behaviors, where the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed yesterday may not be helpful today and tomorrow. The system encourages promotion‑seeking behavior, but discourages lateral movement.
• #21: Multimedia Lecture Support Package to Accompany Basic Marketing Lecture Script 6- Competency‑based pay is similar but usually refers to a plan that covers exempt employees. Advantages are that flexibility helps promote lower staffing levels and aids in situations where the manufacturing process demands adaptable and flexible responses . Delayering is reducing the number of job levels. This provides more flexibility in job assignments and assigning merit increases. A second response to job‑based pay structure problems has been to move away from linking pay to jobs and toward building structures on skill, knowledge, and competency. Competency‑based pay is similar but usually refers to a plan that covers exempt employees. Advantages are that flexibility helps promote lower staffing levels and aids in situations where the manufacturing process demands adaptable and flexible responses.
• #22: Multimedia Lecture Support Package to Accompany Basic Marketing Lecture Script 6- The costs for labor are high in the United States, particularly in comparison to newly industrialized and developing countries. Relative labor costs are very unstable over time because of fluctuations in currency exchange rates. The quality and productivity of national labor forces can vary dramatically. Lower labor costs may reflect the lower average skill level of the labor force. In terms of comparative productivity, unit labor costs, and gross domestic product per person, the United States is the highest in the world. Operating costs may be high enough to compensate for lower labor costs. Also, product development and customer response may be faster when manufacturing is closer to staff groups.
• #23: Multimedia Lecture Support Package to Accompany Basic Marketing Lecture Script 6- Executive pay has been given widespread attention in the press. However, executive pay accounts for a small proportion of the labor costs of an organization, and executives have a disproportionate ability to influence organizational performance. They also help set the culture, so if their pay seems unrelated to organizational performance, employees may not understand why their pay should be at risk depending on the organization's performance..
• #24: Multimedia Lecture Support Package to Accompany Basic Marketing Lecture Script 6-
• #25: Multimedia Lecture Support Package to Accompany Basic Marketing Lecture Script 6- There is much criticism of executive pay, however, because: Some executives are very highly paid, such as the CEO of Walt Disney over $600 million. However, these figures reflect participation in a stock plan (Table 11.10). Executives in the United States are the best paid in the world (see Table 11.11 for total remuneration of CEOs in selected countries). Often, the ratio of executive pay to average worker pay is cited as creating a "trust gap" in which workers do not trust executives' intentions and resent their pay. The issue becomes even more salient when companies are engaging in layoffs but are not cutting executive pay.
• #26: Multimedia Lecture Support Package to Accompany Basic Marketing Lecture Script 6- Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) (Title VII) prohibits discrimination in all employment outcomes, including pay, unless business necessity can be proven.omen have gone from 33 percent of all employees in 1960 to 47 percent in 2007. Second, between 1960 and 2007, whites have gone from 90 percent to 82 percent of all employees. The percentage of white males in organizations will probably continue to decline, making attention to EEO issues in compensation even more important.
• #27: Multimedia Lecture Support Package to Accompany Basic Marketing Lecture Script 6- Comparable worth (or pay equity) is a public policy that advocates remedies for any undervaluation of women’s jobs. The idea is to obtain equal pay, not just for jobs of equal content (already mandated by the Equal Pay Act of 1963) but for jobs of equal value or worth, on the basis of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Typically, job evaluation is used to measure worth. It advocates remedies for any undervaluation of women’s jobs. Typically, comparable worth becomes an issue when comparisons between internal (job evaluation) and external (market surveys) data suggest that there is conflict in which jobs predominantly occupied by women are evaluated more highly internally than in terms of the market data. One problem is that job evaluation is most often used to help apply market‑pay policy and not replace the market. There is also concern that EEO regulations will attempt to replace market forces (although there are no regulations related to comparable worth) and that using only internal comparisons would result in overpayment and underpayment in several instances in relationship to the market, which would create a market disadvantage.
• #28: Multimedia Lecture Support Package to Accompany Basic Marketing Lecture Script 6- The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938 established a minimum wage and overtime pay rate. Minimum wageis the lowest amount that employers are legally allowed to pay. Minimum wage now stands at $5.15 an hour. The Davis‑Bacon Act (1931) and Walsh‑Healy Public Contracts Act (1936) require federal contractors to pay employees no less than the prevailing wages in the area Another approach has been to suggest that organizations should examine, when women's pay falls behind that of men, entry and access to promotions, and so on. Programs such as mentoring might improve the ability of women to access higher‑level jobs.
• #29: Multimedia Lecture Support Package to Accompany Basic Marketing Lecture Script 6- Equity theory suggests that social comparisons are an important influence on how employees evaluate their pay. Employees make external comparisons between their pay and the pay they believe is received by employees in other organizations which may have consequences for employee attitudes and retention. Employees make internal comparisons between what they receive and what they perceive others within the organization are paid. These comparisons may have consequences for internal movement, cooperation, and attitudes (like organization commitment). Such comparisons play an important role in the controversy over executive pay.
• #30: Multimedia Lecture Support Package to Accompany Basic Marketing Lecture Script 6- Pay benchmarking surveys and job evaluation are tools used in managing pay level and job structure components of the pay structure. Pay surveys permit organizations to benchmark their labor costs. Globalization is increasing the need to be competitive in labor costs and productivity. Pay structures is moving to fewer pay levels to reduce labor costs and bureaucracy and shifting from paying employees for narrow jobs to giving broader responsibilities and paying them to learn necessary skills.