Oh I can explain this.

I read this from a book. So a childcare centre faced the problem of parents arriving later than its closing time. Parents were suitably apologetic and said sorry profusely for keeping the staff waiting. Subsequently, the childcare centre decided to implement a policy in which parents who came late needed to pay a penalty. You would expect parents to shape up their behaviour, but ironically the problem grew worse. Parents felt justified in being late because now they were paying for the teachers’ time - regardless of whether the penalty did boost the staff’s salaries.

However, I got to say this penalty system works wonders in Singapore. Every evening, I rush to pick my children up before 7pm because I don’t want to pay the $5 penalty. I am typically the last one to pick up my children, so I’m sure my fellow parents also don’t want to pay unnecessarily haha. We Singaporeans very money/minded haha