The truth is, most of us working jobs in Utah work under a merit-based system that is neither uniform nor based on national pay averages.

If my boss likes the quality of my work, I get raises and/or a Christmas bonus. The system isn't always fair, and the amount he pays me has nothing to do with what people doing my job in California are getting paid.

Sometimes in the workplace, politics, backbiting and mere image and perceptions come into play in how people get ahead or earn more or less than their peers. I'd expect that without any systematic check-off sheet, teachers would also be subjected to this type of merit system.

On the flip side, though, if teachers were evaluated systematically, it seems likely that many if not most would either rise or fall to the minimum required amount necessary to receive pay increases. Teaching isn't as objective as that, even though government oversight tends to impose minimum standards and checklists and test evaluations.

The presence of government oversight in education seems to sway people to thinking the system should be fair, formulaic and devoid of the types of decisions that take place daily everywhere else in the workplace.

In the real world, it comes down to the decision of management, whether it's right or wrong.