While I have never noticed myself changing my behaviors purely for compensation and benefit reasons, they have still been motivating factors. For example, when I have worked jobs that paid minimum wage, I did notice that I wouldn’t put maximal effort in when the job got harder than what I perceived was worth what I was making. I have also had jobs that paid more competitive wages and I was more willing to put in a higher level of effort for longer periods of time since I knew that with the higher wage there were higher expectations for me. My managers at these jobs often reminded us that we were getting paid competitive wages as a means to motivate us to work harder and keep us at the company. This also made it harder to leave the job since I knew it would be more difficult to find a job that paid the same.

I think compensation can have a big effect on retention, specifically. Typically, the higher my compensation, the longer I stay at a job. However, perceptions of fairness of compensation can be quite variable from person to person. Depending on the geographical location or job history, two people may view the same wage very differently. It is important to consider the individual person when predicting motivation from a set compensation or benefit level.