Wage erosion from budget cuts shifts workers’ motivation from service toward remuneration.

Evidence

As wages are effectively reduced street-level bureaucrats may be expected to look more to their benefits and remuneration and less to the service dimensions of their job. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1271

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the psychology-of-work literature on how pay cuts degrade intrinsic motivation (Deci/Ryan crowding-out), useful for comparing rates of cultural versus administrative change.