Marginal revenue productivity

The marginal revenue productivity theory of wages is a theory in neoclassical economics stating that wages are paid at a level equal to the marginal revenue product of labor, MRP (the value of the marginal product of labor), which is the increment to revenues caused by the increment to output produced by the last laborer employed. This is because no firm would employ additional labor whose cost would exceed the revenue generated for the firm.

The marginal revenue product (MRP) of a worker is equal to the product of the marginal product of labour (MP) (the increment to output from an increment to labor used) and the marginal revenue (MR) (the increment to sales revenue from an increment to output): MRP = MP × MR. The theory states that workers will be hired up to the point when the marginal revenue product is equal to the wage rate.If the marginal revenue brought by the worker is less than the wage rate, then there is no need to employ.

The idea that payments to factors of production equilibrate to their marginal productivity had been laid out early on by such as John Bates Clark and Knut Wicksell, who presented a far simpler and more robust demonstration of the principle. Much of the present conception of that theory stems from Wicksell's model.