A STUDY ON THE IMPORTANCE OF PAY

Abstract

Why is money so important as a motivating factor in our jobs? How do we measure the importance of pay to an employee? And how does the importance of money vary with personal and job factors such as age, sex, education, religion and job level? This study addresses the above issues. It is based on Lawler's Importance of Pay model which combines Vroom's Expectancy Theory and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. A questionnaire was designed, tested and administered to two sample groups of employees, one from Times, a private organisation and the other from the National University of Singapore, a public institution. The data of the questionnaire survey were analysed to test the validity of Lawler's model, the significance of the hierarchy of needs and the Instrumentalities of Pay used in the model, and the significance of personal, job and organisational factors in relation to the importance of pay.