View of Spokesman for ‘Centrist’ Democrats : Traditional Pay System Called Obsolete

Former Virginia Gov. Charles S. Robb, an emerging spokesman for “centrist” Democrats, said Tuesday that the traditional system of paying workers a fixed hourly wage or flat annual salaries may be obsolete in the United States.

In a major speech on economics, Robb suggested a new compensation system linking pay to productivity.

The speech, prepared for delivery to the Commonwealth Club of businessmen in San Francisco, was one of a series Robb is making in his position as chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council. This is an organization of prominent moderate Democrats who are trying to push their party away from the liberal platform of the 1984 elections.

One of the frequent targets of the group is organized labor and its traditional influence over Democratic politics. Robb urged labor to become more “adaptable” in reacting to an increasingly technological economy.

“We need to link productivity and pay,” he said. “The old system of compensation--fixed, hourly pay or annual salaries without regard to how a company actually performs--may well be obsolete.

“A dramatic alternative is the share-economy idea, in which workers would receive some percentage of their pay in bonuses, depending on the fortunes of their company. As the company thrives, so would its workers, who, likewise, would share in its adversity.

“By giving companies the flexibility to, in effect, lower payroll costs by trimming or forgoing bonuses during bad times, layoffs could be avoided and workers could gain in job-security what they lose in compensation.”

Workers are not the only ones in need of more modern systems of incentives, Robb suggested. To get business executives to look beyond short-term profits, the son-in-law of the late President Lyndon B. Johnson said, management pensions could be tied to how a company performs after an individual retires.

“The enormous talents of the men and women in American business would be better dedicated to production and the creation of new wealth than the rearrangement of existing assets through corporate mergers and takeovers,” Robb said.

The Commonwealth Club speech was part of a tour by Robb through the state, during which political activists in California were given opportunities to size up a man who is increasingly mentioned as a 1988 presidential or vice presidential contender. About such speculation, Robb would only say, “I’m not closing the door.”

Robb became chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council earlier this year, after completing a four-year term as governor of Virginia. The state’s constitution barred him from seeking reelection.