Determinants of just earnings: The importance of comparisons with similar others and social relations with supervisors and coworkers in organizations

Job Pressure, the Work-Family Interface, and the Sense of Distributive Injustice: An Elaboration of Work-Related Inputs among Twenty-First Century Workers

“…The mean of the composite index is .550, indicating that on average, Canadian workers in this sample perceive themselves to be slightly underrewarded. This result is consistent with recent studies of German workers (Sauer and May 2017; Valet 2018). Factor analysis results indicate that the three items load on the first factor with an eigenvalue of 2.23.…”

“…Factorial survey studies document the relevance of the equity principle in the evaluation of earnings, demonstrating that vignette persons with greater work-related contributions—in particular, job performance and effort at work—are rated as deserving higher earnings (e.g., Auspurg et al 2017; Gatskova 2013; Shamon and Dülmer 2014). Recent research on fairness evaluations of one’s own earnings extend work-related contributions to include longer contractual and overtime working hours (Liebig et al 2012; Valet 2018) as well as social costs as measured by poor social relations in the workplace (Sauer and May 2017). The integration of perspectives in distributive justice, the stress process, and the work-family interface presented here expands the sphere of work-related inputs that shape employees’ ideas of just earnings.…”

“…Longitudinal studies of German workers indicate that employees whose contractual and overtime work hours had increased were more likely to report being underrewarded—suggesting longer working hours elevate reward expectations (Liebig, Sauer, and Schupp 2012; Valet 2018). In addition to working hours, Sauer and May (2017) show that working environments that represent social costs heighten reward expectations. Specifically, workers with poorer social relations with supervisors and coworkers—assessed as unfair treatment from supervisors and low coworker support—were more likely to report that they deserve higher earnings.…”

“…Specifically, workers with poorer social relations with supervisors and coworkers—assessed as unfair treatment from supervisors and low coworker support—were more likely to report that they deserve higher earnings. As Sauer and May (2017:48) describe:When individuals feel deprived of the recognition that they believe they deserve and when they experience the social costs of low-quality relationships at the workplace, they think they are entitled to earn more money as just pay to compensate for a lack of recognition and for social costs in their relationships.…”

Theorizing the impact of fairness perceptions on the demand for redistribution

“…As a cognitive heuristic, they compare themselves to others who are similar in terms of relevant characteristics such as education or effort (Clark and Senik 2010). Individual attitudes towards the own income depend on the average income of colleagues (Feldman and Turnley 2004), employees in the same industry (Verhoogen, Burks, and Carpenter 2007), family members (Liebig, Sauer, and Schupp 2011) and similar people in general (Sauer and May 2017;Shamon 2014). It is a robust finding that the own position relative to others matters (Clark and D'Ambrosio 2015;Tao 2015).…”