Influence of minimum wage and prompt salary payment on teachers’ effectiveness in public secondary schools

Obviously that less motivated teachers are less productive and less disposed to perform their best, despite their acquired teaching experiences in secondary schools. Drawing on equity theory, valence expectancy theory, and the two-factor theory, this paper examines the influence of minimum wage and prompt salary payment on teacher effectiveness in public secondary schools. The study’s sample was drawn from 20 selected public secondary schools in Ibadan North local government area of Oyo State, Nigeria. This study adopts a quantitative research approach. The questionnaires were randomly distributed. Out of 200 questionnaires, 149 questionnaires were effective for analysis after analyzing the data with SPSS version 25. This study revealed that minimum wage, prompt salary payment, and demographic variables have significant independent and joint influence on teachers’ effectiveness in public secondary schools. It was proved that several teachers are dissatisfied with minimum wage payments and that prompt salary payment influences teachers’ effectiveness. Therefore, the study recommended that the state government should review the current minimum wage, making it more attractive to motivate teachers, thereby directly enhancing teachers’ effectiveness. The focus should also be on achieving prompt salary payment through consistent and effective salary scheme management, promoting teachers’ effectiveness.
AcknowledgmentThe current author acknowledges the Department of Industrial Psychology and People Management, College of Business and Economics, University of Johannesburg, under Professor Wilfred Ukpere, in funding the current study and its publication.


INTRODUCTION
According to Dua (2014, p. 5), teachers are called "the torchbearers" of producing social unity and a learning society. As noted by Dua (2014), in any society, education does not rely significantly on any other factor as it does on the teacher, as teachers are an essential factor of any educational system. In the modern system of increased complexity and specialty, effective teachers have an unprecedented demand to direct schoolchildren's masses into progress and improvements (Dua, 2014). However, effectiveness is efficacious in creating an envisioned outcome (Collins English Dictionary, 2017). A teacher's effectiveness is connected to one of the most important places of a student's life, as it can sanitize and adjust student's behavior. Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004) stated that the National Policy on Education indicated that successful educational goals mainly need teachers. Also, as Okoli (1990) stated, teacher effectiveness is indefinable, as teaching in itself is an intricate activity. Secondary education is a brief period to make and break students, as students pass through several psychological and physical changes during adolescence (Dua, 2014). Hence, numerous attractions are open to the learner in this particular period, as reflected in many temptations in merrymaking. During this period, they should be creating and channeling their energies and passions for the productive work of building up the Nation (Dua, 2014).
Concerning wages, payment of wages and salary is an integral part of organizational success because it inspires employees to exert more effort in discharging their duties within the workplace, which produces a positive influence on their effectiveness and efficiency, especially among teachers (Aamodt, 2007). Salary is significant because it provides income for workers and creates pertinent cost items for employers. Hence, the salary is for compensating employees for their work and capabilities (Aamodt, 2007). When employees are satisfied with their salary compared to what employees in other organizations are getting, such employees may conclude that their profits are justly distributed (Abiogu & Ugwuja, 2016). In contrast, employees have more tendencies to be dissatisfied with their job when they experience a decrease in salary attractiveness. In Nigeria, the legislative process regulates the nature of the service of civil servants. Hence, the public sector's wages and salaries rely on the nation's prosperity, precisely, the incomes from taxes and crude oil (Abiogu & Ugwuja, 2016). The minimum wage in Nigeria is known as the least monthly salary due to workers according to the existing minimum wage law (Onuegbu, 2010). As Egbo and Okeke (2009) posited, civil servants do not determine their wages and salaries but usually the legal policy. Given the teacher's varying and imperative job nature, a conducive working environment and necessary resources (for instance, payment of minimum wage) will facilitate their effectiveness (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2004).
However, studies have found that the reviews of wages were mostly not structured to meet teachers' basic needs, which has resulted in recurrent strike actions by stakeholders in every educational sector, including Oyo State. Therefore, evidence has revealed that the Oyo State government is fond of delaying teachers' salaries and wages, which has made a significant number of Oyo State teachers less motivated and productive (Abiogu & Ugwuja, 2016). This position implies that many teachers are not satisfied with the minimum wage they receive. Those who experience delayed salaries are also less disposed to perform to the best of their teaching services' abilities, notwithstanding their acquired teaching experiences in secondary schools. Despite the rising interest in knowing more about teachers' effectiveness and ensuring an increase, a few interrelated problems remain ignored and not suitably examined.

Equity theory
This theory proposes that an individual likens his/ her rewards to the ones received by other employees in parallel positions. Therefore, if such individuals notice a fair and equitable distribution of resources, they will feel contented and motivated, leading to effectiveness and satisfaction on the job (Aswathappa, 2008). Furthermore, he posited that employees always look forward to maintaining fairness between their efforts and their organizations' rewards and appraisals. Therefore, an employee's minimum wage compared to his or her colleagues in similar positions but other factors such as cities, states, or environment might influence their satisfaction and effectiveness. Should an employee be aware of an organization giving unparalleled resources to a couple of employees with an increased level of disparities in their inputs, the individual with more productivity and efficiency will get discontented and demotivated and become less effective with lesser outputs.

Valence expectancy theory
According to Vroom (1964), in his valence expectancy theory, motivation rests on an individual's hope that a specific result follows the action and that the result is attractive. In other words, employees are motivated to work when they are aware that their performance will achieve their goals in the form of rewards (Whitley, 2002). The three components of expectancy theory are Expectancy, which states that employees believe that their exertions would make them attain their wanted goals, Instrumentality, which suggests that employees are sure of reward if they meet their performance expectations, and Valence, which suggests that employees assess whether their received rewards and the value of these rewards are attractive and motivating (Whitley, 2002). Therefore, employees could be satisfied and more effective if they get their rewards and in time after their performance expectations are met, and that their rewards and the value of these rewards are attractive and motivating to them.

Two-factor theory
According to this theory, two factors decide employees' performance levels and working attitudes. These two factors are motivation and hygiene factors (Yusoff et al., 2013 The minimum wage is an issue connected to developing countries (Magruder, 2013). For instance, a country like Nicaragua has a comparatively increased level of minimum wages related to average wages, which indicates that minimum wages have some possibilities to affect a considerable portion of the population (Alaniz et al., 2011). Nonetheless, essential contributions regarding the minimum wage-related to developed countries, like the USA, Canada, and European countries, were noted (Bellou & Kaymak, 2012). However, salary produces a motivational value, and a raise in salary often increases performance among employees. Therefore, a strong positive relationship exists between satisfaction with minimum wage, teacher effectiveness, and performance (Ezeocha, 2001). Britton and Propper (2016) discovered that teachers' minimum/regulated salary significantly influenced student performance in crucial exams because unregulated salary reduced teacher effectiveness, as reflected in school performance. They further posited that teachers' minimum wage is imperative for school performance. Moreover, many governments' current focus has been on using salary for teachers' performance (Lavy, 2009). In their investigations, Burney et al. (2009) and Dessler (2012) found that employees' dissatisfaction with salary/wages significantly affects their work performance and effectiveness.
Furthermore, Najafi et al. (2010) posited that the reward system and organizational support predict employee work effectiveness. Payment of wages and salary influences workers' motivation, loyalty, status in the organizational standard of living, and effectiveness. According to Ezeocha (2001), the direct relationship between minimum salary and effectiveness relies on a few factors. Firstly, employees believe that increased salary is associated with higher performance. Secondly, employees perceive an acceptable degree of equality between their work efforts and their salary. Furthermore, workers believe that improved performances always lead to increased salary. Akomolafe (1993) posits that workers' dissatisfaction with salary may affect organizational outcomes, such as withdrawal behaviors in employee turnover organizational and job performance changes. On the other hand, wage and salary satisfaction improve employees' living; the employer-employee relationship helps prevent such an organization's strike actions. Hence, a minimum wage allows an organization to attract, hold, and inspire capable employees.
Dessler (2012) suggested that employees' work performance and effectiveness increase with prompt salary payment. Olukoya (2013) emphasized that employees' perception of the organizational remuneration system's efficiency significantly impacted employee behavior, effectiveness, and intention to continue working with such an organization. He further revealed that prompt payment of salary, incentives, and fringe benefits motivate teacher effectiveness. The study of Avwerosuo (2017) in exploring motivation and teacher effectiveness in the classroom revealed that several teachers were not happy with what they received as a motivational package, and it affected their level of commitment. The findings also indicated some of the apparent problems, such as 1) delay of teacher's promotion; 2) lack of prompt salary payment; 3) lack of increment in teachers' salaries; 4) delay in the payment of teachers' pension funds and gratuity; 5) lack of a comfortable office and a favorable learning environment.
According to Abiogu and Ugwuja (2016), the most significant teaching factor is the teachers' motivation and not their teaching methods, techniques, or curriculum. They further asserted that prompt salary payment remains the most effective motivational strategy for achieving employee work effectiveness. Therefore, teacher effectiveness goes with the teachers' motivation regarding the minimum wages provided and prompt payment of salaries. Cheptoek (2000) suggested that delayed salary payment is one factor that reduces job satisfaction amongst teachers. Hence, she recommends a prompt salary payment and accompanying workers' promotion with a corresponding salary increase. Furthermore, Olukoya (2013) stated that teachers' incentives, essential fringe benefits, and prompt payment of their salaries significantly affect their motivation and effectiveness. Moreover, in their study, Victor and Babatunde (2014) discovered that remuneration is a crucial motivating factor that has not been among the academic staff in higher education. Also, the findings of Onyali and Victor (2017)

METHODS
In investigating the influence of minimum wage payment and prompt salary payment on teachers' effectiveness in public secondary schools, the present researcher adopted a survey research method. An authorized list of questions designed to gather responses from respondents on a particular research topic is called a questionnaire (Babbie & Mouton, 2010), and this study used it as the instrument for sieving data from participants in the current paper. Before administering questionnaires, the researcher sought authorization from the designated schools' management and pursued participants' informed consent. Participants showed their interests by signing the agreement form on the front page of the questionnaire. The current researcher handed questionnaires to 200 teachers from 20 public secondary schools within Ibadan North local government area of Oyo State, Nigeria. A cover note was attached to the questionnaire, relating the aim of the research and confidentiality of responses.
The questionnaire used in measuring the constructs under study comprised different segments.

Section A
This section concentrated on the participants' demographic data (gender, age, marital status, and teaching experience). Also, this section asked the participants to specify their level of satisfaction with their current minimum wage.

Section B
This part of the questionnaire measures teachers' satisfaction with the current wage/salary and prompt salary payment in Oyo State. It is a 14-item self-report instrument developed by Adegoke (2016). It is a five-point Likert rating scale with response format of SA = Strongly Agree, A = Agree, N = Neutral, D = Disagree, and SD = Strongly Disagree with which respondents needed to specify how much they agree or disagree with the statements listed on the rating scale. The developer of the scale reported a reliability coefficient of 0.84 for construct validity. In the current investigation, the researcher derived a Cronbach's alpha reliability of 0.82.

Section C
This section measures teacher effectiveness using the Teachers' Effectiveness Checklist (TEC) developed by Akiri (2013). It has 29 items and a modified five-point Likert rating scale with a response format of excellent to low, in which respondents needed to specify the degree of their disagreement or agreement with the statements as presented in the questionnaire. The developer of the scale specified a reliability coefficient of 0.89 for construct validity. In the current paper, the researcher derived a Cronbach's alpha reliability of 0.80.
Furthermore, to validate the effectiveness of the measuring scale, the current investigation conducted a pilot study. This action was to detect, in advance, any likely difficulties that respondents may face in completing the questionnaire. In the main study, data collected was analyzed and presented in the tables. The present researcher considered ethical issues about collecting, assessing, and storing confidential data. Therefore, voluntary participation was encouraged. Altogether, 149 questionnaires were retrieved and considered perfect for usage.

RESULTS
The present researcher analyzed data retrieved from the participants with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 25). The current researcher inspected and cleaned the retrieved data before analysis. This paper shows the results of the data analyzed in the sections.   Table 2 shows that teachers' satisfaction with the payment of minimum wage in the Oyo State had a significant influence on teacher effectiveness (t (147) = 4.767; p < .05). This result suggests that when teachers are satisfied with minimum wage payment, it will increase their effectiveness and vice versa. Therefore, this paper accepts the hypotheses stated above. These results further indicate that participants who reported high satisfaction with minimum wage payment in public secondary schools, significantly scored higher on teacher effectiveness (Mean = 31.47) than participants who reported low satisfaction with minimum wage payment (Mean = 26.86). However, participants (N = 99) who indicated low satisfaction with the minimum wage payment were more than those (N = 50) who indicated high satisfac- tion with minimum wage payment. Furthermore, the results above have achieved the first aim of the present investigation, examining the influence of minimum wage payment on teacher effectiveness in public secondary schools. Hence, the minimum wage payment significantly predicts effectiveness among teachers in public secondary schools. Table 3 reveals that teachers' satisfaction with prompt salary payment in public secondary schools, significantly influence teacher effectiveness (t (147) = 6.496; p < .05). The results established a significant difference in teacher effectiveness as a result of their prompt salary payment. Therefore, the present research accepts this hypothesis. These results further reveal that participants who reported high satisfaction with the prompt salary payment in public secondary schools scored higher on teacher effectiveness (Mean = 33.54) than participants who reported low satisfaction with prompt salary payment (Mean = 27.74). Nevertheless, participants (N = 93) who indicated low satisfaction with prompt salary payment of minimum wage were more (N = 56) than those who indicated high satisfaction with the minimum wage salary. Furthermore, the results above have achieved the second objective of the current investigation, which investigates the influence of prompt salary payment on teacher effectiveness in public secondary schools within. Therefore, prompt salary payment significantly predicts teacher effectiveness among teachers in public secondary schools. Table 4a shows that marital status, age, gender, and educational qualification have no substantial joint influence on teacher effectiveness in public secondary schools (R = .234, R 2 = .055, F = 2.089, p > .05). These findings imply that demographic factors have no joint impact on teacher effectiveness in public secondary schools. Therefore, the stated hypothesis is not confirmed.

Inferential statistics (hypotheses testing)
However, the model in Table 4b indicates that out of all the demographic factors (for instance, marital status, age, gender, and educational qualification) exposed to analysis, only employees' demographic factor -age significantly and negatively predicts the variation in the dependent variable (teacher effectiveness) in public secondary schools at β = -.217, t = -2.636; p < .05. This result implies that age contributed about 22% influence on variance in teacher effectiveness in public secondary schools. Moreover, as indicated above, the negative relationship shows that teacher effectiveness Table 3. T-test summary that shows the influence of prompt salary payment on teacher effectiveness   decreases as teachers increase in age and significantly increases when they are much younger.

DISCUSSION
The current findings suggest that when teachers are satisfied with their minimum wage, it will increase their effectiveness. These findings further indicate that more teachers in public schools are less satisfied with their minimum wage. Hence, payment of minimum wage significantly predicts teacher effectiveness among teachers within public secondary schools. This position supports Britton and Propper's (2016) assertion, which states that teachers' minimum/ regulated salary significantly influenced student performance in crucial exams, as unregulated salary reduced teacher effectiveness as reflected in school performance. It also supports their conclusion that teachers' minimum wage is imperative for school performance. The current findings further support the positions of Burney et al. (2009) and Dessler (2012), who found that employees' dissatisfaction with salary/wages significantly affects performance and work effectiveness, as well as support the assertion of Najafi et al. (2010) who found that reward system and organizational support predict employee work effectiveness. Furthermore, the current results corroborate Akomolafe's (1993) assertion that payment of teachers' minimum wage influences their motivation, standard of living, loyalty, status in society, and effectiveness.
The results stated above revealed that teachers' satisfaction with prompt salary payment in public secondary schools significantly influences teacher effectiveness, suggesting a substantial difference in teacher effectiveness due to prompt salary payment. The current results express that more teachers in public secondary schools are less satisfied with late salary payments. Notably, prompt salary payment influences teacher effectiveness in public secondary schools. This assertion corroborates Dessler's (2012) position, which suggests that employees' work performance and effectiveness increase with prompt salary payment, and Olukoya (2013) revealed that prompt payment of salary, incentives, and fringe benefits motivates teacher effectiveness. The current results also support the position of Abiogu and Ugwuja (2016) that teacher effectiveness goes along with the teachers' motivation in terms of the minimum wages provided and prompt payment of salaries, and who further posited that prompt salary payment remains the most effective motivational strategy for achieving employee work effectiveness. Furthermore, this paper confirms Olukoya (2013) position, who asserted that teachers' incentives and prompt payment of their salaries significantly affect their motivation and effectiveness.
Furthermore, the current paper's findings show that marital status, age, gender, and educational qualification have no significant joint influence on teacher effectiveness in public secondary schools, which implies that demographic factors have no joint influence on teacher effectiveness in public secondary schools. Hence, this result does not support Lips (2010) position that demographic factors (for instance, educational qualification, work experience, gender, and job status) had a significant joint influence on employee work effectiveness. The current results further indicate that out of all the demographic factors (for instance, marital status, age, gender, and educational qualification) exposed to analysis, employee's age was the only variable that signif- icantly and negatively predicted the variation in teacher effectiveness in public secondary schools. This position is an indication that age contributes about 22% influence on variance in teacher effectiveness in public secondary schools. These results support Van Engen et al.'s (2001) assertion that gender did not notably predict employee work effectiveness, and that of Roy and Halder (2018), who indicated gender as a demographic factor not significantly predict teacher effectiveness. Furthermore, this paper confirms Chusmir and Parker's (1991) assertion that age has a sig-nificant relationship with employee effectiveness. These findings have achieved the third objective of the current paper: to look into the mediating role of demographic factors on teacher effectiveness in public secondary schools.
The current paper's fourth objective, which is to develop an empirical model that can effectively increase teacher effectiveness in public secondary schools, is achieved from the present investigation's data analyses. Hence, Figure 1 reveals the empirical model.

CONCLUSION
The present research was devoted to developing an empirical model that could effectively improve teachers' effectiveness in public secondary schools. This paper's results show that satisfaction with the current minimum wage among teachers is significantly low, and a majority of the public secondary school teachers are very dissatisfied with the payment of minimum wage. Therefore, this paper concludes that many teachers are dissatisfied with minimum wage payments in public secondary schools. Secondly, this paper indicates that prompt salary payment significantly influences teacher effectiveness in public secondary schools, which suggests that if the government can be consistent with prompt salary payment, it would lead to more teacher effectiveness. However, the current findings show that age contributes significantly to teacher effectiveness in public secondary schools. Hence, young teachers are more likely to perform more effectively. Furthermore, this paper concludes that minimum wage payment, prompt salary payment, and demographic variables significantly influence teacher effectiveness in public secondary schools.
Based on the findings in this study, the Oyo State government should review the current minimum wage and make it more attractive to motivate teachers, thereby directly enhancing teacher effectiveness in Oyo State, which is better associated with high student learning performance. Besides, the government can also achieve prompt salary payment through consistent, effective, and best salary scheme management, which can positively improve salary prompt payment. If handled with sensitivity, no doubt, teacher effectiveness would be promoted. Going by the current paper's findings, the state governments should employ and encourage a higher percentage of younger teachers to work in their public secondary schools.