Scenario:
AlphaCo and BetaCo are both mid-sized pharmaceutical companies that employ over a thousand workers. The highest paid employees at each company are the executives and the senior level researchers.
This year, both companies have a raise pool of $5,000,000 - that is, each can raise the total compensation paid to all of its workers by a total of five million dollars.
AlphaCo uses $3,500,000 of its raise pool to increase pay for executives and researchers. Most of the other workers receive small raises, and some receive no raise at all.
BetaCo uses $3,500,000 of its raise pool to give everyone in the firm an equal 5% raise. Some key employees receive a raise of over 5%.
1. Which company will have employees who are, overall, more satisfied? Why?
2. Which company is likely to outperform the other over the next year? Why?

BetaCo raised the salaries of everyone in the company meaning that even those who were not getting paid so much saw their salaries increase. Employees here will feel more appreciated as a result of this financial incentive as opposed to AlphaCo that neglected to cater for all its employees in an equal manner.

BetaCo will outperform AlphaCo over the next year all else equal because motivated employees tend to work harder for a company. In addition, BetaCo increased the salaries of key staff by more than 5%. Those key staff will work harder as a result of this incentive and push the company further than AlphaCo.