The Jury Is Still Out On Merit Pay in Government

Abstract

In this article the argument is made that the recent federal government experience with merit pay has produced misleading results. Because the program was largely a failure does not mean that it cannot work. Its deficiencies can be attributed to poor and hurried implementation and to inade quate funding. After examining the literature on both the implementation fiasco and employee attitudes about merit pay, the experience of a Navy research and development laboratory which has been experimenting with pay-for-performance for about six years will be examrned.