Some people say that one of the great things about America is that we elect our rulers. But that isn't quite right. In America, the people we elect to public office are our employees. They work for us, not the other way around.

And right now, very few of the bosses, the American people, think the employees, such as members of Congress, are doing a good job. As of April 2013, only 15% of respondents to the Gallup Survey approved of the job Congress was doing, and an overwhelming 79% thought that members of Congress should voluntarily give back one-quarter of their salaries as part of the sequestration.

But just slashing pay won't provide a long-term solution to America's governing problems or the economy. We need to do what smart bosses do: link our employees' pay to performance. Politicians should take a pay cut when they produce bad results, but they should receive a pay raise when they do a good job. We call this Merit Pay and Pain.

The idea behind Merit Pay and Pain started with a law review article by one of our team members called Merit Pay and Pain: Linking Congressional Pay to Performance. This video submission explains the idea using the analogy of a boss's annual performance review to determine an employee's pay raise or pay cut. It represents the team members' first step toward establishing a permanent organization to bring transparency and accountability to the pay of public officials so the bosses--the American people--can incentivize their employees--the politicians--to start doing a better job and to get the country back on track.