"Pay what you want" model doesn't work out for government
"Pay-what-you-want" is a concept with lots of appeal -- altruistic-seeming, purely-motivated fashionably cooperative, and touted by Radiohead, restaurants and role-playing games.
Alas, it's first broad test in employment compensation is a failure. As the Washington Post reports, most subjects of the experiment fled the lab before the Paymaster could ex post facto acquire their skills at the bargain basement prices he believes the public would like to pay:
At Bank of America, for instance, only 14 of the 25 highly paid executives remained by the time Feinberg announced his decision... At American International Group, only 13 people of the top 25 were still on hand for Feinberg's decision.
A compensation policy with a 46% attrition rate (much higher on an annualized basis -- 120%) would get a private sector CHRO fired. Somehow I feel that won't be Feinberg's disposition.
