Effects of Performance-Based Pay Systems on Quantity and Quality in Computer Programming

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of quality-contingent pay systems on quantity and quality. Three computer science students were paid to create simple computer programs across 25 sessions. A multiple-baseline across subjects design was used to compare the effects of three kinds of pay systems; pay-for-hour, pay-for-quantity, and pay-for-quality systems. The quantity was higher when pay was based on the quantity of the programs produced, and the quality was highest when pay was based on the quality of the programs. The production cost including quality inspection costs was highest when pay was based on the time worked.