A pay correction is not a prize

Integrity · Little Light original

The review begins with news: a gap has been recognised, and your salary will be moved closer to the level of the work you already do. Then the adjustment is described as a reward. New targets appear beside it, as though fairer pay has created a debt that must be repaid with more output. A correction and a reward answer different questions. One repairs the relationship between existing responsibility and compensation. The other recognises contribution beyond an agreed standard. When they are blended, the person may receive a larger number while still being denied an honest account of why the old one was wrong. Leaders do not lose authority by naming a correction plainly. They build trust by refusing to make fairness sound like a favour. Restore the baseline without attaching a performance story it does not need. Then discuss future growth on its own terms. People can meet ambitious expectations more confidently when the organisation is equally clear about what it owed before asking for what comes next.

Little Light