Equity Model

Description
Equity theory is a theory of motivation that suggests that employee motivation at work is driven largely by their sense of fairness. Employees create a mental ledger of the inputs and outcomes of their job and then use this ledger to compare the ratio of their inputs and outputs to others. Inputs may include effort, performance, skills, education, and experience; outcomes generally refer to pay, benefits and promotions. If employees perceive that their ratio of inputs to outcomes is not equitable with that of their peers, they may become demotivated and dissatisfied with their job.
Equity theory is based on the idea that individuals are motivated by fairness, and if they identify inequities in the input or output ratios of themselves and their referent group, they will seek to adjust their input to reach their perceived equity. Adams suggested that the higher an individual's perception of equity, the more motivated they will be, and vice versa: if someone perceives an unfair environment, they will be de-motivated.
The easiest way to see the equity theory at work, and probably the most common way it does impact employees, is when colleagues compare the work they do to someone else that gets paid more than them. Equity theory is at play anytime employees say things like, 'John gets paid a lot more than me, but doesn't do nearly as much work,' or 'I get paid a lot less than Jane, but this place couldn't operate without me!' In each of those situations, someone is comparing their own effort-to-compensation ratio to someone else's and is losing motivation in the process.