Employees less productive when paid less

Like many people, I am a strong believer that employees are more productive when they're paid more. Now I found a solid number to back up this believe. In a new paper published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, (no online version yet), researcher Alexandre Mas (Univ. of California-Berkeley, Haas School of Business) examined how police officers' productivity can be affected by how much money they're awarded in arbitration proceedings. Looking at compensation disputes involving New Jersey police unions, Mas found that when the officers' salary demands were met, the number of crimes they solved over the next two years was 12% higher than when they lost.