“Higher salaries are better than other incentives for motivating workers.” To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

Money, since its first appearance nearly 5, 000 years ago, has exerted far-reaching impact on every aspect of humans' life. From being used as a medium of exchange to serving as a store of value, money has been so widely preferred that some people claimed that higher salaries were better than other incentives for motivating workers. From a personal perspective, I strongly disagree with this statement, basing on two potential unwanted consequences of financial incentives, namely pay inequality and a reduction in intrinsic motivation. It is a truth universally acknowledged that the more considerable a monetary reward is, the more likely it is to cause inequality among employees. Apparently, a promotion in salaries for some workers can arouse the feeling of jealousy from others who do not get the same extra money, thus having undesirable influences on the overall productivity. One distinctive example of this, taken from a research in the article "The Problem with Financial Incentives - and What to Do About It", describes the case in which major league baseball teams with greater gaps between highest and lowest payment lose more games than those with a stricter control over paying among team members. The money undoubtedly made members at the top feel great and perform better, but at the same time could not compensate for the loss coming from those who are in the bottom. What is more, being paid less than others might create a sense of depreciation for some laborers. At Google in 2014, multimillion-dollar stock grants were awarded to major contributors with a view to maintaining important employees. The program unfortunately turned out to be a mistake since it raised resentment and feeling of discrimination in those without the bonuses ("The Problem with Financial Incentives - and What to Do About It", 2019). Clear as it may seem, the more does not always mean the better, not to mention the worse. Not only can a rise in salaries raise unfairness in payment but it can lead to a decline in intrinsic impetus of the workers as well. In his article, Chamorro-Premuzic (2013) mentioned an engagement research on 1. 4 million employees across 34 nations, revealing that there was little connection between job satisfaction and pay level. In other words, extra money does not result in engagement. To make matter worse, there is a likelihood that the more employees focus on a pay rise, the less they concentrate on their work itself, thus enjoy what they do less and less. This can be seen through another metal-analysis including 128 experiments wherein a decrease by 36% in laborers’ Version: 1 intrinsic motivation happened when the financial incentives were foreseeable (Chamorro-Premuzic, 2013). In this case, the money-relating method produced an adverse effect on the working spirit of employees by making the financial reward the final goal of the job, not the complement of the product itself. Payment rising is one of the ways, but it surely cannot be entitled the best when applied to motivate workers. Although advocates of cash-based incentive might argue that it can make people strive harder to perform their tasks, this school of thought can be demolished by the method's “after-effect”. The reward itself makes receivers contemporarily feel more excited about the work, but cannot retain their work ethic in the long run. An experiment studying the reaction of employees at a manufacturing facility at first showed a slight “up” in laborers’ productivity when they were given monetary rewards, yet a “drop” happened once they no longer got them (Rimon, 2016). It is not hard to see that the dedication to the job was gradually distorted by a tangible profit that will have to be raised from time to time. Undeniably, once adopting the cash-based methods, companies will have no choice but to stick to it for fear of productivity decrease. And by doing so, an unhealthy working environment is being built, which will eventually ruin the system. Though the benefits of financial incentive are palpable, it still creates potential unintended consequences including payment inequality and intrinsic motivation decrease, which may pose a threat to the long-term development of the business. Thus, it is advisable to consider alternative means such as verbal recognition in encouraging workers. Not until the leaders are able to make the work itself enjoyable will the employees contribute their best to the company.