Teacher attrition and teacher pay concerns are not specific to certain states or school districts. The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of merit pay's initial incentive and single salary earnings on the attrition and retention rates of teachers with three to five years of teaching experience. Initially, merit pay may provide novice teachers with a pay raise. However, within a merit pay scale, additional raises or incentives would be based on student achievement, school set goals, or teacher evaluations. Novice teachers may still be mastering their skill, making future incentives difficult to earn. This qualitative study utilized an interpretive phenomenological approach. Fourteen novice teachers who have worked within a merit pay scale and a single salary schedule were interviewed. The main themes that emerged included: teacher struggles, teacher salaries, teacher attrition, merit pay, student achievement reflecting a teacher's ability, teacher's incentive determined by another teacher's performance, and the relationship between teacher attrition and salaries. A key finding from the study was, most of the participants had never considered ending their teaching career. The majority of participants agreed teachers should be paid more. Nine participants disagreed with merit pay implementation. The participants believed merit pay's initial incentive would increase teacher retention temporarily. The participants believed teachers would remain in education to receive the initial incentives that merit pay may offer, and the following school years when additional incentives would be based on student achievement, school set goals, or teacher evaluations, teachers would leave education. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]