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Performance Related Pay Coverage in the UK

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  • Cowling, Marc

Abstract

A simple model of the firms’ decision to pay workers performance related pay (PRP) is tested using company level data for 1,001 UK private sector businesses. From the basic sample statistics we observe that, on average, 26.5% of workers are covered by PRP systems. Yet this hides the fact that only 50.5% of businesses have any workers at all covered by PRP. Our empirical analysis offers support for the key hypotheses drawn from Lazear type PRP models, which emphasise the relations between firm size and implementation costs, and ease of measurement, as medium and large firms are more likely to have PRP systems. However, these results are over-turned when we consider the extent of workers covered by firm level PRP systems if they are in place. Here we observe that more workers are covered by PRP in micro and small firms.

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  • Cowling, Marc, 2007. "Performance Related Pay Coverage in the UK," MPRA Paper 1619, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:1619
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    performance related pay systems; firm size; quality of work;
    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

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