The Wall Street Journal reports ($) that the US Navy has discovered the benefits of the free market in setting wages for jobs. Under the old system, all sailors in the same job classification were paid the same wage, and job assignments were made by navy command. ‘”The old system was Stalin-like,” says Rear Adm. Jake Shuford, who is in charge of the redesign.’.
Now, jobs are auctioned to sailors on eBay where sailors bid the size of a pay raise that they would require in order to accept a particular position.
For decades, when the Navy needed to fill an unpopular job in a distant place, it simply ordered a sailor and his or her family to move.
Recently, it took a different tack. To keep skilled sailors in the service — which entails keeping their families happy — Navy officials put some of those out-of-favor jobs up for online auction, a la eBay. Among the first to bite was Petty Officer 1st Class Elishaine Moses. He offered to take a job in Yokuska, Japan, but only if the Navy was willing to bump up his salary by $350 a month.
He doesn’t want to live in Japan. Nor does his wife. But they figured an extra $350 a month would go a long way toward a down payment on a house. “My No. 1 goal in life right now is to save enough money to build a house,” his wife, Shana Moses, says.
The online auctions are one piece of a new Navy plan to unleash the power of the free market on its personnel system.
