That's still a much simpler debate, at least morally. As far as pay is concerned merit is how much money you are paid in a competitive, free market. I think it

That's still a much simpler debate, at least morally. As far as pay is concerned merit is how much money you are paid in a competitive, free market. I think it's best to focus on two types of merit. There is potential merit ( how much you could be making ) and capturing merit ( how good you are at capturing your potential merit ). let's take an example. If there are two hotdogs sellers on the street and they sell the exact same hot dogs at the exact same location but one charges two dollars and the other charges four dollars - and the guy who charges more ends up making more money. does the guy who gets paid more have more merit ? yes. they have the same amount of potential merit but the guy who knows the correct price to charge has more capturing merit.