An Examination of Pay Facets and Referent Groups for Assessing Pay Satisfaction of Male Elementary School Principals

Abstract

Pay satisfaction was assessed according to different facets (pay level, benefits, pay structure, and pay raises) and potential referent groups (teachers and elementary school principals) for a random sample of male elementary school principals. A structural model approach was used that considers facets of the pay process, potential others as significant referent sources, and actual pay received by male elementary school principals. All facets were found to be important; significant others who were found to be important were teachers, as well as other elementary school principals within the school district. The overarching finding was that relative pay, rather than pay rate, is the better predictor of pay satisfaction.

The impact of pay satisfaction and school achievement on high school principals’ turnover intentions

“…All high school principals employed by California (USA) public school districts serve as the population for this study. From a compensation perspective, it is appropriate to hold the focal position constant because “pay amount varies by focal position” (Young et al, 2009: 269). By focusing on only high school principals, this source of variation is addressed.…”

“…The purpose of this study is to help fill the void in the literature by examining whether a relationship exists between principals’ pay satisfaction and their turnover intentions; pay satisfaction is not established in a vacuum but rather is theorized to be influenced by comparative peers (Young et al, 2009). In addition, it has been argued that lower school achievement creates an unpleasant working condition for principals, which has also been found to be associated with their increased turnover (Partlow, 2007).…”

“…Young et al (2009) shed more light on the construct of pay satisfaction when they noted the important role that comparative peers (i.e., referent sources) hold in its determination. For instance, in their study of the pay satisfaction of elementary school principals in California, the authors examined “teachers within [the principal’s] school district, elementary principals within [the principal’s] school district, and elementary principals in other school districts” (Young et al, 2009: 266) as potential referent sources that elementary school principals might use for the purpose of pay comparisons. These positions were selected as referent peers because of the likelihood that the elementary school principals would have information regarding their pay.…”

“…A structural equation model was used to test several hypotheses in this study. This same methodology has been used by others both in the business and education literature to examine the constructs explored in this present work (Currall et al, 2005; DeConink and Bachmann, 2007; Vandenberghe and Tremblay, 2008; Young et al, 2009). Due to the theory of different pay satisfaction dimensions (Heneman, 1985), initial tests were performed for the measurement model: Hypothesis 1: The four dimensions of pay satisfactions (i.e., pay level, pay raises, pay benefit, and pay structure/administration) will load on an overall factor of pay satisfaction for high school. …”

“…Because “referent groups vary [by] type of focal position” (Young et al, 2009: 265), this study seeks to examine possible significant others for a different employment position (i.e., high school principals) than previously studied and their influences on pay satisfaction, using similar potential referent sources to those examined by Young et al (2009): Hypothesis 2: The path coefficients between pay satisfaction and the potential referent sources (i.e., teachers within the school districts, other high school principals within the school district, and other high school principals in different school districts) will be significant. …”