As reported by the BBC:
"Cuba is to abolish its system of equal pay for all and allow workers and managers to earn performance bonuses, a senior official has announced.
Vice-Minister for Labour Carlos Mateu said the current system - in place since the communist revolution in 1959 - was no longer 'convenient'."
Cuba to Abandon Salary Equality
Cuba has a long history of paying near-identical salaries for the ditch-digger and the brain surgeon, about $20/month.
After 40 years of revolutionary fervor, many in Cuba no longer work hard "for the good of the country" and see no point in trying to excel, if there is no reward for it. I've met kids who see no point in working at all.
The low level in wages is due to the high cost of subsidies. Rent, utilities, health care, education, transportation are all heavily subsidized, so much so that a plane flight across the country costs a Cuban about $5.
This leads to what I call a "typical socialist over-utilization of services," resulting, at least in part, in shortages of consumer goods. And when goods are scarce, as soon as they become available they are gobbled up. After all, they are nearly free.
But strange changes have been occurring. The daughter of the brain surgeon, working in the tourist industry might make more in tips, in a day, than her father does in a month. Changes such as these have caused many Cubans to suggest that whereas Fidel has done much for Cuba, his decisions since the fall of the Soviet Union have not always been so good.
In the last decade, "dollar stores" have sprung up, whereby the government sells non-essential consumer goods at quasi-free market prices. Typically, the boom-box that sells in Mexico for $30 will sell in the dollar stores for about $60, making the government of Cuba a capitalist enterprise.
The "dollar stores" don't actually take dollars, but rather a second currency, separate from the Peso, that is pegged more closely to the US dollar.
Cubans all want change in their country, albeit slooowly. They saw the upheaval in the former Soviet Union, and don't want to go down that road.
Economic change is seen as more important than political change. Frankly, they all want to be able to buy a new car. Imagine that!
I'd invite others with more recent information to add or correct what I have posted here. Things ARE changing in Cuba.