Merit pay seems to be all the rage among education reformers in several states. The theory is:
- Other industries pay their best employees more, so it must work.
- Students will perform better if their teachers are more motivated, and teachers are motivated by more money.
While I can think of a lot of reasons why No. 2 is completely false, I'd like to share the following article by Peter Greene that completely debunks No. 1:
http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-merit-pay-lie.html?m=1
I'd also like to point out that a friend of mine is married to a man who works on straight commission in construction sales. That means that he doesn't make any money if he doesn't sale anything. When contractors are building, he makes a commission on millions of dollars in sales.