[Alex Murphy]

It's important to note that there has to be a correlation between an employee's compensation and his or her productivity. I get into this kind of discussion with my own employees all the time. If someone has the same skills as they did five years ago, and contributes the same (at best) to the company's bottom line, then any raise they get is actually hurting the company.

We'll have to agree to disagree on this point. The only correlation is what the employer chooses to give in exchange for what, and whether the employees are willing to honor their own agreement in regards to wages, once they learn what others are getting paid:

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.
After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.
And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace,
and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’
So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same.
And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’
They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’
And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’
And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius.
Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius.
And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house,
saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’
But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?
Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you.
Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’
-- Matthew 20:1-15

[Alberta's Child]

If you really think that parable is a discourse on labor relations, then we're certainly going to have to agree to disagree. LOL.

I can speak to this issue objectively because I work in a managerial position and face this dilemma on a daily basis.

I had a recent conversation with an employee who thinks he is underpaid. I asked him how much he wanted to be paid, and in doing so I think I baffled the heck out of him when I told him that I would even pay out of my own salary to double his compensation, if necessary. This is indicative of someone who doesn't have a clue how a business works, has no idea how labor contributes to the company's bottom line, and can only determine that he needs to be paid "more."

A month later the person still hasn't given me an answer to the question.