Linda Bonanno's Weblog

Making the Case for Unequal Pay and Perks
Treating top performers the same as weaker ones is “strategic suicide,” say backers of a compensation revolution
By Michelle Conlin – Business Week

This article surprised me, not because of its content, but because this was considered a “new” idea. Maybe it is just the fact that I’ve been working in small startup companies in high tech for many years that makes me familiar with this. I’ve always recognized that there are a very small handful of employees that a company cannot live without. These are the employees that invariably get the biggest salaries, bonuses, and perks. As a manager these are the folks that you have to take care of.

I know that during the dotcom bubble everyone received big pay raises. If your company didn’t value you as much as you liked – all you had to do was go somewhere else. If you worked for a large company with a big bankroll you likely held onto that big salary increase during the downdraft. If you were an under performer at a small company and you were overpaid you invariably were laid off. It probably took you a while to find another job, and you probably took a pretty good pay cut. If you were a top employee you either were held onto at all costs, or if your company shut down one of your many contacts snapped you up – and not at a bargain price.

I suspect this article really is targeting larger companies that typically have had large HR organizations who flattened salaries to average toward the market mid-point.