HRM

Discussion:
You just got an email from Dave, an acquaintance of yours who is a sales supervisor with another company.  He writes:
“I supervise a salesperson named John.  I just found out (don’t ask me how) that he makes more money than me – even though I’m basically his manager!  And I’m not talking about commissions, I’m talking base pay!  That burns me up!”
You are the compensation expert; how would you respond (professionally, please) to Dave? 
In your response, take a stand on the issue of pay grade overlap.
  Is this a useful practice?  Why or why not? 
What alternatives (if any) do you believe are more practical?  Be prepared to support your answer with evidence from the textbook or outside sources.
A related issue with pay grade overlap is pay compression; please read the attached article for some updated studies on potential problems with pay compression.  Do you see that possibility in the discussion question’s scenario?
Specifically:
What points would you add to your peers’ discussions to support their positions?
Where do you and your peers disagree?  What information did your peers overlook in their responses to this issue?
How would you have responded differently regarding the issue of pay grades?

QUOTES FROM OUR TEXTBOOK:
“The actual range of pay grade is frequently an amount arbitrarily selected by an individual or individuals with compensation policy decision-making responsibilities.”
“Certain issues can affect the final value selected.”
“it is a matter of simple mathematics to identify the upper and lower limits of the pay grade.”
“The difference in midpoints and the spread of the pay range then determine the amount of overlap between adjoining grades.”
“An overlap between pay grades provides an opportunity of r the excellent performer in the lower pay grade who has long tenure (high seniority) to earn more than the new, less experienced person in a more senior pay grade.” “The philosophy here is that the skilled high performer in a lower-graded job may be making a greater contribution than the less experienced incumbent in the next-higher grade.”
“The compensation manager must be aware by this time that no firm rules apply for setting specific quantitative guidelines for developing a pay structure.”
“the basic design criterion that determines pay differences in moving through a pay structure is the midpoint-to-midpoint difference.” “Mid-point to mid-point pay difference is the percentage change in the middle value (again, pay policy or market rate of pay for a job) from one adjacent pay grade to the next.”
“a number of logical and rational consideration can be given for having multiple pay structures that focus on the forces that influence the actual pay of the various occupational groups comprising most organizations.”
“forces that includes the pay of each of these groups assists in the clarifying of some relating issues.”