Payroll of team members
In real life scrum masters often encounter the demands of the management or HR department of the organisation they work for to participate in establishing salaries or fees for team members
In general its not the Scrum Masters role, but to maintain the good relationship with own employers who foot the paycheck many scrum masters don't find a courage to resist.
On another hand motivation is a main factor which is increasing team productivity and reduces risks, and nothing in the Universe motivates human being more then higher pay check. Besides if Scrum team is creating higher value, i.e. profits for a stakeholders it only fair to asks that renumeration of team members should also be reasonably increase.
So what good Scrum Master can do when someone asks him to get involved in the salary rates or fees of team members?
IMHO
The interesting step would be to resist the HR intervention in teams income, then do the following:
-Pass the task to Product owner. After all HR team are stakeholders, and its product owner , not scrum master who has to deal with stakeholder
-At the next Scrum planning or even at retrospective suggest following first for the team, and then on behalf of the team to the Product owner, and eventually, through the Product owner to stakeholders
-Financial bonuses and , if HR insists penalties for the whole team based on performance from stakeholders POV, i.e. not based on scrum story points which are internal material of the team, but based on actual increase or decrease n value of the product team has developed. The amount should be assigned on the team as a whole, at the sprint review not to individual members.
- At retrospective suggest the team to vote about dividing bonus or penalty amount among themselves.
- Team can then decide to divide the amount based on individual efforts, calculated on story points or ideal days, or whatever other criteria, divide it equally or reject at all. every team member can put his or her proposition about how to divide an amount, and the proposition which gets most votes wins
- Inform HR about teams decision so it will de reflected in the next payroll.
nothing in the Universe motivates human being more then higher pay check
Are you sure? What about autonomy, mastery, and a sense of purpose? Money counts, but I'd suggest that paying people more is unlikely to motivate them a great deal unless they are performing the simplest and most mechanical tasks, and it could well have the opposite effect in the complex and creative work for which Scrum is a good fit.
what good Scrum Master can do when someone asks him to get involved in the salary rates or fees of team members?
I'd reflect on which team members are championing new skills: competencies that are needed in a cross-functional team and which are scarce and in short supply. That must surely be worth something. Those champions are helping the organization to overcome its constraints, and to take the pain away in an agile transformation.
"Are you sure? What about autonomy, mastery, and a sense of purpose?"
Yes I am sure. Every person who helps organisation he works for increase value, i.e. profits without seeing his own income going up will feel cheated in the end.
"I'd reflect on which team members are championing new skills: competencies that are needed in a cross-functional team and which are scarce and in short supply"
You are Scrum master. You manage the process not the team. Team itself should decide upon that, not the SM. You can only suggest, accept teams decision and negotiate with PO, and eventually with steakholders(people who pay the bills) in the end.