Assignment – Week 4 – Cash Compensation Components

 

Gone are the days when attendants – or “clubbies’ in dugout lingo – did little more than shine shoes and pass out towels in exchange for the occasional dollar.   Nowadays, their jobs are more like those of Hollywood personal assistants: When they aren’t sorting socks, they’re arranging dinner reservations and programming player iPods.

            In most sports, Junior locker-room attendants are paid roughly$7 – 8 an hour by the team while more senior managers, who sometime double as travel coordinators, can earn salaries of up to $80,000 before bonuses or tips.

             Bonuses work as follows:

1.      Among players. It’s understood that unusual requests should be rewarded and that wealthier players should be more generous.  During the season players often reward clubbies with tips of as much a $300 for (errands).

2.      Players and coaches also are expected to add gratuities to the daily “dues” they pay to clubhouse managers at home and on the road.   (The dues cover food and drinks, which clubhouse managers pay for out of their own pockets).

3.      By custom, team members meet privately at the end of the regular season to vote on how the postseason “shares” will be allocated. When the Anaheim Angels won the title in 2002, Clubhouse Manager Ken Higdon was awarded a full share that came out to $279,000. 

 

Questions:

 

1.      Which part of the compensation for “clubbies” is similar to what happens in any organization?

2.      Does the compensation for Ken Higdon seem excessive” is he like a highly paid executive?

3.      How is the compensation different in baseball? And how does this effect clubby pay?

4.      From the information provided above, what part of the total package is base pay?  What kind of incentive rewards are the rest of the forms of compensation?  Does there appear to be any merit pay in this package?