Are employees cheating when they benefit from incentive schemes?

As experts from Cornell University, among other institutions, believe, incentive programmes at work “can be both medicine and poison”. These programmes may unintentionally encourage bad behaviour at work. Employees tend to cheat to reap the rewards – CFOs hide companies’ poor performance, doctors selectively admit healthier patients, and teachers turn a blind eye to cheating to get better test scores. In 2020, Wells Fargo paid $3 billion to settle numerous claims because its employees opened millions of unauthorised and false accounts and forged signatures and financial transactions “to meet sales targets and receive bonuses”.

Following an agreement with the labour and business sectors, the Mexican government will raise the minimum wage from 1 January 2023. It will increase by 20%, from 172 Mexican pesos (US$9) per day to 207 Mexican pesos (US$10.82).

The Croatian government has drafted a law requiring employers to pay higher wages for Sunday work. From 1 January 2023, employees in all sectors of the economy will be paid 50% more than their usual wage for working on the seventh day of the week. Currently, wages are 30-37% higher on Sundays. The number of working Sundays will be limited to three per month and to a maximum of 16 per year. Trade unions have demanded double pay for Sunday work, which is standard practice in Germany.