Overview

“Performance Related Pay and Health” is a three year interdisciplinary project funded by the ESRC (ES/R01163X/1).

Research in economics have established a link between performance-related pay (PRP) – where workers’ pay is contingent upon their performance at work – and poor health. However, the causal direction of this relationship is not known. Does PRP lead to poor health, through increases in risk-taking, overworking or chronic stress about the uncertain flow of earnings? Or, are people with poor health more likely to work in jobs that utilise PRP contracts? The aim of the project is to explore this relationship using an experimental work task and by measuring stress through cortisol. This paradigm will then be altered to measure other effects that may influence the relationship between PRP and stress. 

The project team: L to R:  Dr Dan Powell, Dr Julia Allan, Professor Ioannis Theodossiou, Professor Keith Bender and Dr Nicole Andelic