Pay versus Value
“The myth is that you get paid what you’re worth. Yet for many occupations, it’s just the reverse: Pay is inversely related to the real benefits to society. Social work, teaching, nursing, and caring for the elderly – or for children – are among the lowest-paid of all professions, but the benefits to society are considerable. We desperately need these people.
“On the other hand, investment banking, management consulting, corporate law, and hedge-fund management are among the highest-paid of all professions (the Times reports hedge-fund manager Steven A. Cohen made about $2.3 billion last year, and is still doing extraordinarily well even after his hedge fund entered a guilty plea to insider trading charges). Yet the benefits to society are negligible. You might even say they’re negative, because most of what these professions do is take money out of one set of pockets and put the money into another, in zero-sum contests that cost a bundle.
“So why isn’t pay better connected to the real value for society?”
- Robert Reich
Are you valuing your people appropriately – not just to be competitive in hiring markets but also for the value they bring (to you AND to your customers/guests)?