# What is a padding factor called?

I am working on calculating staff raises with these few general criteria. Note that this is a very simplified example.

1. The raise pool is 5% of the combined salaries
2. The intent is to award 2% to anyone who is considered "adequate". In this example "adequate" is defined as an overall rating of 10. - There are 10 categories where you can score 0 (bad), 1 (adequate) or 2 (good)
3. The remaining 3% will be distributed based on merit (those scoring over 10).

The problem of calculating total merit points and dividing up the pool is in a scenario where 2 people have a rating of 10 and one other person has a rating of 11, the person with the 11 gets the entire merit pool.

In reality the person scoring 11 is just slightly better than the people rated 10 so this method is faulty.

Name   Salary   Overall_Rating  Merit_Points  Standard  Merit      Total
Jim    $40,000.00 11 1.0$800.00    $3,600.00$4,400.00
Bob    $40,000.00 10 0.0$800.00    $0.00$800.00
Sam    $40,000.00 10 0.0$800.00    $0.00$800.00

Raise               5.00%
Pool amount         $6,000.00 - Sum of salaries * raise % Standard 2.00% - Everyone gets this amount provided they have a rating of 10 or more Merit 3.00% - The remainer of the raise pool for merit Merit Pool$3,600.00  -  Total merit pool
Total Merit Points  1.0  -  Sum of points over 10


In this example I added a "padding factor" to soften the distribution. Each person gets a baseline of 1 point for merit plus their actual merit points. This ensures that one person cannot get the entire pool when they are rated just slightly higher than the others. It also awards someone when they are rated significantly higher than the others.

Name   Salary   Overall_Rating  Merit_Points  Standard  Merit      Total
Jim    $40,000.00 11 2.0$800.00    $1,800.00$2,600.00
Bob    $40,000.00 10 1.0$800.00    $900.00$1,700.00
Sam    $40,000.00 10 1.0$800.00    $900.00$1,700.00

Raise               5.00%
Pool amount         $6,000.00 - Sum of salaries * raise % Standard 2.00% - Everyone gets this amount provided they have a rating of 10 or more Merit 3.00% - The remainer of the raise pool for merit Merit Pool$3,600.00  -  Total merit pool
Total Merit Points  1.0  -  Sum of points over 10