“当前，我们支付给工人工资不是根据他们的产出，也不是根据他们的劳动投入，而仅仅是根据他们的工作时间。”（美国艾伦布林德教育署，支付生产力）。
在一些国家，传统的工资和薪酬是由政府政策，最低工资的保障，与工会协商，仲裁或裁定，或个人的雇佣合同因素等共同决定的。影响薪酬和加薪的因素或条件，包括利润（但一般来说，和个人或组织表现的无关），工作评价，年资，生活水平，劳动力供求情况，有关各方的谈判力量和技能等。绩效，如和组织表现相关的生产力或利润在决定是否加薪方面起到一定的作用。
虽然根据不同的技能给付不同的工资，这已经反应了技能在薪酬中的作用，但是薪酬体系中很少有鼓励员工获取与应用的技能的。工业化国家并不是通过的低工资，而是通过产业集群的产生竞争力建立他们的竞争优势。在这些工业化国家，通过技术的改进、提高生产率和产品质量以维持较高的收入和生活水平。现在，许多国家都承认高科技，髙生产力和低收入的结合不能在一段时期内持续，所以不少雇主现在通过加薪以维持他们的竞争力。因为加薪和提高绩效密切相关，这样就可以吸收增加的劳工成本。同时，以日本、新加坡和韩国为例，他们通过对员工在技能发展方面的投资实现员工的奖励和激励，而且已成功地将这部分投资转向高增值和以科技为本或服务部分。他们认为未来将进入知识型工业， 而髙薪酬是一种重要的战略。
实际收入的增加是有可能实现的。这是因为对教育和技能的投资，有助于提高生产力，这反过来又产生创造吸收较高收益的能力。在八十年代，新加坡有意将经济转移到一个高工资水平，以鼓励进行高增值的生产活动。因为维持较高的收入必须提高生产力，同样长期生产率增长又会致使实际工资的增加。
The Move To Performance Pay
"We now pay workers not for output produced, nor even for labour input provided, but simply for time spent on the job."(Alan S. Blinder ed. Paying For Productivity).
Traditionally wages and pay have been determined through government regulation, minimum wage determination, negotiation with unions, decisions of arbitration or labour courts in some countries, and the individual contract of employment. The factors or criteria which have influenced pay and pay increases include profit (but generally unrelated to individual or group performance), job evaluation, seniority, cost of living, manpower shortage or surplus, the negotiating strength of the parties and skills. Performance
measures such as productivity or profit related to the performance of a group have been of less importance in determining pay increases. Though skills have been reflected in pay differentials, pay systems have been seldom geared to the encouragement of skills acquisition and application. Industrialized countries have built their competitive advantage not around low wages, but around clusters of competitive industries in which high earnings and standards of living have been sustained through improved technology, productivity and quality. Many countries now recognize that high technology, productivity and low earnings cannot be combined and sustained over a period of time. As such, many employers arenow seeking to sustain their competitiveness through pay increases which are morerelated to performance as a way of absorbing increased labour costs, while at the same time rewarding and motivating employees. Japan, Singapore and Korea, for example,have succeeded in moving to high value-added and technology-based or service activities partly because they had invested in skills development and accepted the fact that higher earnings are an essential strategy for entry into the knowledge-based industries of the future. Increases in real earnings have been made possible because investment in education and skills contributed to productivity enhancement which, in turn, created the capacity to absorb higher earnings. In the 1980s Singapore made a deliberate shift to a high wage economy in order to encourage entry into high value-added activities.
