ABSTRACT
Wage systems – especially payment by output and payment by performance – have traditionally been described as management tools aimed at increasing workers’ productivity by motivating them to work harder and quicker. In industrialised societies, pieces rate wage systems were introduced to remedy the shortcomings of time rates which did not give an incentive to greater effort. When wage incentives were seen only – in the employers’ perspective – as a motivation tool, they were an important element in the strategy of social struggle between employers and unions, techniques of individualisation of work relationships, of atomisation of negotiations and of undermining workers solidarity. The social, economic and political action of social actors does not limit itself to the wage incentives systems. The wage structure is much broader, and each part of it can be a field for social bargaining. Wage systems and financial participation should be considered as development tools.
