---
title: Pay removes complaints. It doesn't create commitment.
description: "Herzberg: what causes complaints and what creates commitment are different sets. Pay is hygiene; enough of it buys no engagement. So raises don't retain."
image: https://nobusato.jp/hubfs/covers-2026-11/herzberg-pay-removes-complaints-cover-en-m.png
---

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[日本語](https://nobusato.jp/ja/blog/herzberg-pay-removes-complaints)[English](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/herzberg-pay-removes-complaints)[中文](https://nobusato.jp/zh/blog/herzberg-pay-removes-complaints)

Organizations & Hiring

In this article

1. [Two different sets](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/herzberg-pay-removes-complaints#s1)
2. [Why raises don't retain](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/herzberg-pay-removes-complaints#s2)
3. [The design decision: hygiene to the line, then budget into motivators](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/herzberg-pay-removes-complaints#s3)
4. [Back to the method](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/herzberg-pay-removes-complaints#s4)

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# Pay removes complaints. It doesn't create commitment.

A raise removes dissatisfaction; the reason to stay is the role

[Nobu Sato](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en)5 min read

Contents4

1. [Two different sets](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/herzberg-pay-removes-complaints#s1)
2. [Why raises don't retain](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/herzberg-pay-removes-complaints#s2)
3. [The design decision: hygiene to the line, then budget into motivators](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/herzberg-pay-removes-complaints#s3)
4. [Back to the method](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/herzberg-pay-removes-complaints#s4)

**Series「People Don't Follow the Org Chart」** · Part 11 of 13 · Part 3 · Why people put in effort  
Prologue：[The people who aren't on the org chart](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/people-not-on-the-org-chart?hsLang=en)

An employee resigns. The company offers 30% more and he stays. Six months later he resigns again, and this time nothing holds him. The company concludes he always wanted to leave. Herzberg explained this in 1959. The raise removed his dissatisfaction. It gave him no reason to stay.

## Two different sets

In 1959 the psychologist Frederick Herzberg interviewed two hundred engineers and accountants, asking when they had felt especially satisfied at work and when especially dissatisfied. The answers didn't sit at opposite ends of the same factors. They came from two different sets altogether.

The dissatisfiers he called hygiene factors: company policy, supervision, pay, relationships, working conditions. When these fall short, people are dissatisfied. When they're adequate, people aren't satisfied. They're just no longer dissatisfied. The satisfiers he called motivators: achievement, recognition, the work itself, responsibility, growth. These are what produce engagement.

I should be upfront about the controversy. Herzberg's method has been criticized for sixty years. In interviews people tend to credit good experiences to themselves (achievement) and blame bad ones on the environment (pay, policy), which would manufacture two sets artificially. Later replications are mixed, and pay shows up among the motivators in some studies. I treat it as a useful empirical classification, not a law. Some things only stop losses. Others generate returns. Most companies spend on the first and expect the effect of the second.

A raise removes dissatisfaction. The reason to stay comes from how the role is designed

The employee who stayed after a 30% raise and left six months later, sorted by Herzberg’s two sets of factors (1959)

What happenedFactorDo this first

**Hygiene factors**　short: dissatisfied. adequate: just no longer dissatisfied

First resignationHis pay really was below market

→

Pay

→

Bring it to around the market median, then stop. Money above the line does little

Complaints about commute, office and rules are tolerated, then settled all at once

→

Policy, supervision, conditions

→

Don’t wait for feedback. Check them yourself

**Motivators**　present: people engage. Put the saved budget here

Second resignationNothing in the work engaged him

→

The work itself, achievement

→

Responsibility module: a block of work with his name on it

A remark when the boss is in a good mood

→

Recognition

→

A public quarterly review, and promotion criteria that state what was accomplished

·

Growth

·

A ladder (previous post)

Money only works up to the point where complaints stop. Spend the retention budget on role design.

Figure 1. A 30% raise removed the dissatisfaction with below-market pay but did nothing about the real reason he left: nothing in the work engaged him. Bring hygiene factors to the line where they are no longer a problem, then put the saved budget into responsibility modules, public reviews and a growth ladder.

## Why raises don't retain

When the employee first resigned, the dissatisfaction was real. His pay really was below market. The raise removed it. But he had gone and checked the market for a reason. Nothing in the work engaged him, so he started counting money. The raise fixed the number he arrived at. It didn't fix why he started counting.

This happens especially often in Japan entities, for two reasons. First, the only lever HQ can usually pull is money. Achievement, recognition and responsibility have to be designed by the entity itself, and HQ doesn't trust the entity's design. Second, Japanese employees tolerate hygiene problems for a long time and say little, so the problem often becomes visible only at the moment of resignation, when the only thing a company can do instantly is raise pay. [A 50% raise and he still left](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/a-50-raise-and-he-still-left?hsLang=en) describes exactly this sequence.

## The design decision: hygiene to the line, then budget into motivators

Two steps.

Step one: bring hygiene factors to the line where they are no longer a problem, then stop. Pay around the market median, a clean office and an easy commute, clear rules that don't change weekly. Money above that line has very low marginal effect, because the dissatisfaction it would remove is already gone.

Step two: put the saved budget and attention into motivators, and build them into structure. Verbal praise doesn't count. Achievement needs visible output, which is the [responsibility module](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/ringelmann-effect-add-people-pull-less?hsLang=en), where everyone owns a block of work with their name on it. Recognition needs a formal mechanism, like a public quarterly review or promotion criteria that state what was accomplished. A remark when the boss is in a good mood isn't one. Growth needs a ladder, as in [the previous post](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/motivation-is-a-design-decision?hsLang=en).

One addition for Japan. Japanese employees won't tell you where the hygiene line is. They tolerate dissatisfaction with commute, office and rules for a long time and settle the account all at once. So you have to check hygiene factors yourself. Don't wait for feedback.

## Back to the method

In my three-track pay design, the base pay set by grade is the hygiene factor. It keeps people from being dissatisfied about money. Strictly speaking, the results-based bonus track is market pricing. It isn't a Herzberg motivator. The real motivators aren't in the pay system at all. They're in role design. That's why, when I assess a company's ability to retain people, I look at how roles are defined before I look at the pay table.

The last time your company tried to keep someone, was it removing a complaint or giving them a reason to stay?

**In this series**  
Previous：[Motivation is a design decision](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/motivation-is-a-design-decision?hsLang=en)  
Next：[Score the role before you score the person](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/score-the-role-before-the-person?hsLang=en)

Herzberg's own data have drawn methodological criticism too. I look at how well the psychology managers quote has held up in [a post on replication rates](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/management-psych-experiments-replication?hsLang=en).

Author

[Nobu Sato](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en)

Launching in Japan, starting with people and systems. I write about building organizations, sales teams and technology organizations in Japan, in English, Japanese and Chinese.

[Profile](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en)[Contact](https://nobusato.jp/en/contact?hsLang=en)

## Read next

1. 01[Motivation is a design decision](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/motivation-is-a-design-decision?hsLang=en)5 min
   
   Self-determination theory: autonomy, competence, relatedness. Each maps to a design decision: reporting lines, grade ...
2. 02[Four kinds of relationships, and why pay design goes wrong](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/four-relational-models-and-pay-design?hsLang=en)5 min
   
   Fiske's four relational models: communal, ranking, equality, market. All four exist in one company. Pay fails when one ...

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