Abstract: salary policy plays a major role in enterprise management as salary is a main motivator for employee productivity improvement. The article presents international and national experience of using salary as a factor of work motivation, examines more effective means of employee encouragement as well as evaluates the possibilities of applying foreign experience in the Russian practice.
The authors identified the countries that made significant achievements in the sphere of the management of work motivation, highlighted particular features of pay systems in the USA, France, the UK as well as considered methods applied to determine the pay rate. Special emphasis is placed on the Japanese salary system as it is recognised as one of the most effective schemes in the world practice. In Japan a payment model is one of the elements of five great Japanese mechanisms of labour relations. The article provides practical recommendations for the use of the Japanese experience by Russian employers.
It ends with summarising the most commonly used modern ways of increasing the stimulating role of salaries. The article explains that when choosing a model of work motivation through salary that is suitable for Russia it is necessary to draw on our own experience as well as cultural and historical peculiarities.
Keywords: salary, work motivation, Pay for Performance (PFP), company profit, economic growth, Japanese salary system, salary differentiation, employee skill level, grading system, social benefits and guarantees