Compensation

Should a manager be paid more than regular employees? As a manager my initial response to this question is a resounding yes of course. However, just because I want it to be, does not make it right or so. According to Certo & Certo the role of a manger is to guide organizations toward goal accomplishment. (Certo & Certo, 2012) Just like a football team must have a captain, an organization must have mangers in order to accomplish their goals. The question then comes into play is one role more important than another? Since one can consider the manager employee role a symbiotic relationship meaning one cannot not exist without the other we end up back at our original question. Is the manager role more important than the role of the employee therefor worthy of higher compensation?

I think the real question here is the question of how we are compensated. Fair compensation for honest work is an age-old adage that has been debated for centuries. What is fair compensation? The Bureau of Labor Statistics defines compensation as wages and cost of employer provided benefits. Between 2007 and 2014 an average of 30 percent of an employee’s compensation was through employer paid benefits. In order to get an accurate account of compensation we must include employer paid benefits in this discussion. However, also during this same time span according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics there has been an increase in inequity largely driven by a growing compensation gap between high- and low-earning occupations—and considerable intraoccupational inequality. Reinforcing that professional including mangers are compensated higher than and hourly wage employee. (Monaco, 2015)

Many large and small companies have gone to pay for performance format that, in theory can decrease the compensation gap between high and low earning occupations. As no format is without weaknesses pay for performance plans are all about the details. A substantial portion of the success or failure of this compensation system lies with who will be