Compensation as a whole is made up of different components that work as an aid for an employee after retirement or in case of some accident or injury. Now we shall see the key elements or components that make compensation.
Wages and Salary
Wages mark hourly rates of pay, and salary marks the monthly rate of pay of an employee. It is irrelevant of the number of hours put in by an employee working in the firm. These are subject to annual increase.
Allowances
Allowances can be defined as the amount of something that is allowed, especially within a set of rules and regulations or for a specified purpose. Various allowances are paid in addition to basic pay.
Some of these allowances are as follows −
● Dearness Allowance − This allowance is given to protect real income of an employee against price rise. Dearness allowance (DA) is paid as a percentage of basic pay.
● House Rent Allowance − Companies who do not provide living accommodation to their employees pay house rent allowance (HRA) to employees. This allowance is calculated as a percentage of salary.
● City Compensatory Allowance − This allowance is paid basically to employees in metros and other big cities where cost of living is comparatively more. City compensatory allowance (CCA) is normally a fixed amount per month, like 30 per cent of basic pay in case of government employees.
● Transport Allowance/Conveyance Allowance − Some companies pay transport allowance (TA) that accommodates travel from the employee’s house to the office. A fixed amount is paid every month to cover a part of traveling expenses.
Incentives and Performance Based Pay
Incentive compensation is performance-related remuneration paid with a view to encourage employees to work hard and do better.
Both individual incentives and group incentives are applicable in most cases. Bonus, gain-sharing, commissions on sales are some examples of incentive compensation.
Fringe Benefits/Perquisites
Fringe benefits include employee benefits like medical care, hospitalization, accident relief, health and group insurance, canteen, uniform, recreation and the likes.
In recent years, a great deal of attention has been directed to the development of compensation systems that go beyond just money. We can say that all the components of compensation management play a very important role in the life of an employee.
In particular, there has been a marked increase in the use of pay-for-performance (PrP) for management and professional employees, especially for executive management and senior managers. Compensation is a primary motivation for most employees.
