EQUITY ISSUES IN EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE AND COMPENSATION: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF NATIONAL INLAND WATERWAYS AUTHORITY (NIWA), LOKOJA, NIGERIA

The emergence of different salary structures in Nigeria's public service have created a notion of inequity among employees of organizations that perform comparable tasks but do not receive comparable pay. Perceived inequity in the input-outcome ratio of referents internally and externally impacts negatively on public service delivery in Nigeria, hence this empirical study. Primary data was generated through a survey method. Secondary information was obtained to establish the nexus between employee performance, compensation and equity. The study population was the 246 employees of NIWA, Lokoja. Census sampling technique was adopted. Thus, 246 questionnaires were administered. The instrument was trial tested on a randomly selected sample of 25(or 10%) employees. A five point Likert Scale was used. The mean score was compared with the average mean score of 3.0 for decision making. One tail test was used to test the null hypothesis. Findings revealed that; (i) outcome ratio to employee performance in NIWA when compared to referent organization is negative; (ii) outcome ratio to performance of employees on the same rank is negative, and (iii) outcome ratio to performance of employees on the same rank but different tasks in NIWA is not positive. The study recommended that to enhance Equity and Performance, compensation plan must be redesigned to minimize the level of perceived imbalance in the input-outcome ratio internally in NIWA and externally with referent organizations.