Cuban Officials Say Equal Pay May Not Work, Dropping Wage Limits Could Help

Cuba is beginning the Long March To Joining The Rest Of The Western World. It seems, they are finding that, perhaps, Communism doesn't work after all:

HAVANA — The egalitarian wage system Fidel Castro spent decades building in Cuba is no longer viable, plagued by low pay, corruption and waste that can be eased by paying workers more for better work, a top labor official said in an interview published Wednesday.

Carlos Mateu, a vice minister of labor and social security, said many government companies have already eliminated caps on salaries for productive workers and the rest must do so by August.

The article in the Communist Party daily Granma contained few direct quotes from Mateu, a practice common in official Cuban media. But it said Mateu "underscored that there has been a tendency for everyone to get the same, and
that egalitarianism is not convenient."

"That is something we have to resolve," Granma said, adding that the traditional Cuban pay system saps employees' incentives to excel since everyone earns the same regardless of performance.

That is "unfair because if it's harmful to give a worker less than he deserves, it's also harmful to give him what he doesn't deserve," the article said.

Mateu said the new compensation system fits with the mantra of "socialist distribution" often mentioned by new President Raul Castro: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his work."

Excuse me for a second while I laugh.

That's meant to distinguish the current system from Cuba's ideological goal, Karl Marx's formula of communism: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."

The vice minister was unavailable for further comment Wednesday, and a Labor Ministry official said she was not authorized to provide more information.

Details of the new system were not revealed. It is not clear if officials plan to pay higher regular salaries for better workers, or if they would just receive bonuses for good performance.

Ah, how difficult it is to come out and admit that you are a Capitalist Pig.

It would seem that American policy-makers ought to take note of this change and begin dialogue with the goal of easing Cuba towards a real Capitalist system. The principle of productivity-based pay applies to corporations, and whole sectors of the economy, as surely as it does to individuals.

That is the next realization the Cubans need to have. We could help them get there.