Compensation: Theory and Administration
Explores determinants of wage levels and structures, analyzing how wages impact individual attitudes and organizational participation.
Summary
Past student reviews · Barry Gerhart
Problem sets and group projects took a lot of time to complete, but the professor was very generous with grading.
What you’ll be able to do
Articulate the principles of effective compensation systems and their role in supporting organizational strategy, internal alignment, external competitiveness, pay for performance, and cost control.
Explain the impact of global, legal, organized labor, and regulatory contexts on an organization’s compensation practices.
Apply course concepts to support careers in compensation strategy, managing people, and recognizing how one's own pay and career progression is determined.
Analyze compensation strategies to identify problems and develop solutions that support an organization’s strategy.
Source: UW Guide
Grade history
↗All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors
Prerequisites
Course mapSophomore standing and (M H R 305 or 705), or declared in the Business Exchange program
- Sophomore standing
- take one
- declared in the Business Exchange program
This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.
Prerequisite text tree
- Any of
- All of
- Sophomore standing
- Any of
- declared in the Business Exchange program
- All of
Professors
Spring 2027No instructors recorded for this selection.
Historical instructors & teaching patterns
BARRY GERHART is recorded teaching in Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2016, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
Calendar & sections
Spring 2027Schedule loads here as you scroll.
| Section | Mode | Enrolled / capacity | Waitlist |
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Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.
Meeting source records
Student experience
the class
Past student reviews · Barry Gerhart
Students described Barry Gerhart as a caring instructor who provided helpful study guides and generous grading, though some found the lectures unengaging.
Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.92 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=20 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.77 GPA, 92.3% A/AB (n=39 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.75 GPA, 85.7% A/AB (n=28 letter grades).
difficulty & workload
Past student reviews · Barry Gerhart
Problem sets and group projects took a lot of time to complete, but the professor was very generous with grading.
Past student reviews · Barry Gerhart
One student found the instructions confusing and felt the lectures lacked engagement, describing the slides as mere snippets of the textbook.
Topics
- Determinants of wage levels, wage structures, and individual wages.
- Impact of wages on individual attitudes and decisions to participate and perform in organizations.
- Internal alignment, external competitiveness, pay for performance, and cost control.
Skills
- Articulate principles of effective compensation systems including internal alignment, external competitiveness, and pay for performance.
- Explain how global, legal, labor, and regulatory contexts influence compensation practices.
- Analyze compensation strategies to identify problems and develop strategic solutions.
Grades
Latest available · Fall 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.
Grade distribution · % of letter grades
Grades over time
Through Fall 2025
More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data
Not enough comparable courses for Spring 2027 in UW–Madison.
Sources & history
Catalog & offerings
Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.
Catalog observation history
Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.
Selected offering source records
No offering records for the selected term.
Raw records
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Student reviews
Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.
Read original reviews
Grade history
Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.
Explore recorded gradesRecorded 2026-10-14
Model outputs & technical records
LLM outputs across runs
Full model traces
Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.
Model & dataset provenance
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