It's not exactly a jackpot.
Still, Michigan Lottery Bureau employees are the only state employees to get performance bonuses.
Paul Egan of the Detroit Free Press reports that Michigan Lottery Bureau has paid 75 employees, collectively more than $300,000 in incentive pay in the past year.
The program was initially set up for about 75 sales representatives who met quarterly goals for instant tickets and certain club games. It was expanded this year to include 16 more lottery employees — from the chief deputy commissioner to marketing coordinators. Each is eligible for up to $6,000 a year in performance bonuses.
The Lottery Bureau, cited “seven years of documented success” when it pushed to expand the bonuses for 2013. But the incentive pay program failed to meet its minimum goal in three of those seven years, according to a Free Press analysis of records obtained under Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act. It’s also difficult to demonstrate a link between lottery ticket sales and the incentive pay offered to sales employees.
