Cherry-picked criticism. Some firms may reward their most productive workers, but that doesn't change the fact that the vast majority of workers aren't machines which can be fine tuned for peak efficiency. Nor does it change the fact that the overall trend in business leans toward business managers expecting more for the same reward from their workers. The only reason hourly pay is averaging between 12 and 15 an hour at present is because business owners couldn't find more people willing to work for less. Economic progress for workers only happens when the owners of industry are forced to evolve their compensation scheme, and only when the alternative is too great a threat to their continued operation. They're still likely to do what they can to get the most return for the least resource expenditure, always at the expense of the lowest on the economic ladder.