Merit Pay

Let’s take a look at merit pay. Merit pay involves annual incremental increases to base salary, an annuity that compounds for as long as the employee remains with the department.
In “true” merit systems, managers have flexibility about who gets how much (not just when there are grade or classification promotions). Typically, organizations opt for either a longevity or a merit category, although raises may use both criteria simultaneously.
One common practice, noted earlier, is to divide the pool of funds for raises into COLAs and merit. However, sometimes merit is designated as the sole determinant; in such cases the portion going to performance is in lieu of the cost-of-living portion and longevity is implicitly eliminated.
Those who are underperforming receive no merit, but generally, those individuals would be deprived of their step increases in most step systems as well. Merit systems jurisdictions may use pay ranges rather than steps for job classifications and their related grades, with minimums, midpoints, and maximums.
So long as government salaries are inconsistent with the expectations of job candidates, those motivated by money will find better alignment of individual and organizational needs in the for-profit sector. Performance pay, even well implemented, cannot address such inconsistencies.

[@robertfulkerson5614]

Gregg at the 1:39 second mark you have a misspelling in the word meaningful. I enjoyed the video