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Literature indicates that monetary reward or compensation impacts on the level of attraction, motivation, job satisfaction and retention of employees. The elements of compensation include salary, bonuses (allowances), gratuity and pension. The purpose of this study is to investigate how these four elements of compensation specifically influence the attraction, motivation, job satisfaction and retention of public sector construction employees of Jigawa State of Nigeria to inform how their employer can raise the current levels of satisfaction and retention of employees.

The Positivist paradigm guided the empirical research where a questionnaire was developed, pilot-tested and administered to 265 people using stratified random sampling. A total of 260 questionnaires were collected, representing a response rate of 98 per cent. The data obtained were analyzed using both descriptive statistics and structural equation modelling.

The results established that construction employees in Jigawa State’s public sector were motivated by allowances and gratuity, attracted to the job by salary, pension and gratuity and remained in their jobs through the influences of gratuity and pension. Gratuity played a major role, as it impacted on all the four variables studied.

These findings are applicable to Jigawa State of Nigeria but can be extrapolated to other public sector construction employees in the whole country. The findings could also be generalized in other states where the pay scales are different within the ministries.

The impacts of four elements of monetary rewards on four employees’ variables were studied. The specifics of which elements of compensation influence the employees of Jigawa State’s Ministry of Works and Transport have been identified. The findings from this study showed that gratuity played a primary role, as it impacted highly on all the four variables of job attraction, motivation, satisfaction and retention. Pension also played a high role, as it impacted heavily on job attraction, satisfaction and retention. Comparatively salary and allowances had high impact on one variable each: job attraction and motivation, respectively.