If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys : Have you ever felt that your salary is too low? For the work you are doing, the job you are doing, are you being paid peanuts? After all, why is it so ? Our question is not about 'low salary' but about this saying 'salary worth peanuts'. After all, how did the custom of comparing low salaries to peanuts come into existence? How the saying 'If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys' came to be.
This literally means that if you pay a peanut-like salary, you will get incompetent employees like monkeys in return. But what harm has the poor peanut done to anyone that it was used to express 'less'? And when did the monkeys get a job in which company, they were presented as incompetent or weak employees. After all, how did this proverb originate?
Meaning of the proverb If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys
'If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys' is an English proverb and its meaning is primarily to the pay of employees and their performance. This saying is used in the service sector, business and management world and says that if you pay low wages i.e. equivalent to peanuts, you will only get incompetent or less-qualified or weak employees (Monkeys). This expression is mainly used in business, management and government services to denote a situation where underpaying employees has a negative impact on their efficiency or qualifications.
The simple meaning of the proverb is that if very low salaries are paid to employees in an organization or company, then competent and capable people will not be able to survive in it. Only those people will remain who are either inexperienced or not that skilled in the work. This means that any institution or organization must provide appropriate salaries and resources to achieve quality. This proverb is used in the context of encouraging high levels of diligence and productivity in business, government jobs and any type of organizations.
origin of proverb
Its exact origin is disputed, but it is generally considered a 20th-century saying. Its earliest use is believed to have been in a British or American business context. Although there is no proven source for the earliest use of this saying, its influence is primarily associated with the Western business and management world.
The origin of the saying is considered to be in the decade of 1940-1950, when the shortage of qualified employees was being felt in the business and industrial world and it was understood that to maintain the quality of the employees, it is necessary to pay them proper salary. At that time, this saying began to be used as a warning that if wages and resources were not adequate, it would result in less skilled or incompetent employees.
Reference And Importance
The meaning of this proverb is that if an organization or company pays very low salary to its employees then it will not be able to keep good quality employees. This will attract only those people whose qualifications are low or whose enthusiasm and efficiency in work is not that high. It is used in situations where it has to be shown that paying lower wages will result in less experienced or unqualified employees rather than qualified and hardworking people.
- commercial Reference: This saying is mainly used in business, government services, and industrial sectors, where there is a direct relationship between the efficiency and salary of the employees. This is a message to the management that if they try to run things cheaply, they will not get good results.
- Importance: This proverb is a lesson for management and leadership that investments must be made in employees to yield good results. If salaries or resources are cut, it will lead to a decline in the quality of work.
It is clear from this saying that if any organization, institution, factory, business etc. has to attract experienced and skilled employees and utilize their abilities properly, then their salary and facilities also have to be taken care of completely.
