Research Article Associations between Wage System and Risk Factors for Musculoskeletal Disorders among Construction Workers Jeppe Zielinski Nguyen Ajslev, 1 Roger Persson, 2 and Lars Louis Andersen 1,3 1 National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Lersø Parkalle 105, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark 2 Department of Psychology, Lund University, 22100 Lund, Sweden 3 Physical Activity and Human Performance Group, SMI, Department of Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark Correspondence should be addressed to Jeppe Zielinski Nguyen Ajslev; ajslev@gmail.com Received 9 June 2015; Revised 4 October 2015; Accepted 5 October 2015 Academic Editor: Giustino Varrassi Copyright © 2015 Jeppe Zielinski Nguyen Ajslev et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Piece rate and performance based wage systems are common in the construction industry. Construction workers are known to have an increased risk of pain and musculoskeletal disorders (MSD). In this cross-sectional questionnaire study, we examined the association between wage system and (1) physical exertion, (2) time pressure, (3) pain, and (4) fatigue. Te participants comprised 456 male Danish construction workers working on one of three diferent wage systems: group based performance wage, individually based performance wage, and time based wage system. Te statistical analyses indicated diferences between the wage systems in relation to physical exertion ( = 0.05) and time pressure ( = 0.03) but not to pain or fatigue. Workers on group based performance wage scored higher (i.e., worse) than workers on individual performance based wage and workers with an hourly/monthly wage. In conclusion, group performance based wage was associated with higher levels of physical exertion and time pressure. Accordingly, group performance based wage can be viewed as a factor that has the potential to complicate prevention of MSD among construction workers. Since performance based wage systems are common in many countries across the world, more attention should be paid to the health efects of these types of payment. 1. Introduction Construction work in Denmark is usually performed by “gangs” of workers within a single profession (e.g., brick- layers, carpenters, and concrete workers). One way to com- pensate workers within the construction sector is perfor- mance based wage. Tis type of compensation difers from time based/fxed-schedule compensation (e.g., a weekly or monthly wage) in that performance based compensation is dependent on the number of produced units (or some other form of predefned and repetitive work cycle). As such performance based wages may sometimes be called “piece rate wages” and be dependent on individual or group performance. Even if no ofcial documentation regarding the commonness of performance based wages exists, union representatives estimate the percentage to be circa 20–50% of total work. Even though performance based wages are fairly common in many countries, few studies have examined whether performance based wages are associated with any health consequences [1]. Te few extant studies have, however, linked performance based wages with signs of poorer health. For example, in a study from 1989, Vinet et al. reported that the use of stomach medication was higher among piece rate workers than among workers receiving hourly wages [2]. In a more recent study, performance based wages were associated with higher levels of personal and work-related burnout compared with workers receiving wages according to a fxed time based schedule [3]. In a study among Danish slaughterhouse workers, Kristensen documented both higher levels of experienced work strain and higher levels of sickness absence among workers on piece rate wages [4]. Ackroyd and Tompson [5], who studied organizational misbehavior, argued that piece rate wages ofen resulted in Hindawi Publishing Corporation Pain Research and Treatment Volume 2015, Article ID 513903, 11 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/513903