A Comparison of the Effects of Two Individual Monetary Incentive Systems on Productivity:

This study compared the effectiveness of a piece-rate pay system in which 100% of the subject's pay was incentive-based with a base pay plus incentive system. Two experiments were conducted. In each experiment, six subjects were exposed to both pay systems using a within subject ABA reversal design. The order of the presentation of the two pay systems was reversed for one-half of the subjects (BAB). Subjects participated in six to nine three-hour sessions (Experiment 1) or nine to fourteen four-hour sessions (Experiment 2). Stimulated bank checks with differing cash values were presented on a computer screen, and subjects entered the cash values using the computer keybopard. The dependent variable was the rate of correctly entered-checks. No systematic relationship emerged between productivity and the two pay systems suggesting that the contingent relationship between performance and pay, rather than the magnitude of that relationship, was the critical determinant of productivity.