Behavior and Compensation


I worked one summer in high school for a farmer, bucking hay. He hired multiple high school students, and we were paid minimum wage plus a bonus that was dependent on how much hay we pulled out of the fields. I don’t remember the dollar amount but for the sake of explanation say it was $20 bonus for every 100 bales picked up. If you didn’t pick up over 100 you didn’t get the bonus. Well a couple guys I worked with would combine their left over bales to equal 100 and then split the bonus 50/50 for that 100 bales. I didn’t know they were doing this until after the summer, but think they wanted the bonus money so bad, as that was a large part of our pay that they cheated to get it. They did the work but the bonus was based on individual performance, not group, as they were doing. I hope this all makes sense. let me know what you think, and what theories played intomtheir actions.

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