A father decides to put his two sons to work landscaping. The business involved going to a customer's home and providing landscaping services (cut gras, edge sidewalk, pull weeds in flower beds, prune bushes and trees, rake leaves). Rather than paying a flat wage, the father decides to pay an incentive according to the following schedule (average across all lawns).

At the end of the second week under this arrangement the boys are quarrelling with each other and not happy with their dad. All of the disagreements revolve around the incentive system. What might be the problems?

A) what might be the problems? Please consider: what daily wage can be earned (state you assumptions)? what controllable and uncontrollable factors may contribute to not achieving the week wages?

B) what changes should be made in the wage/pay structure?

Task Piece rate incentive per person Physical effort Time to complete per person Charge to customer

Cut Grass $4 Easy 0.4 h $30

Edge Sidewalk $1 Easy 0.1 h $5

Pull Weeds $6 Very Hard 0.5 h $40

Prune Bushes $5 Hard 0.5 h $30

Rakes Leaves $5 Hard 0.5 h $25