Firms’ wage structures, workers’ fairness perceptions, job satisfaction and turnover intentions: Evidence from linked employer-employee data

Jens Mohrenweiser; Christian Pfeifer

Firms’ wage structures, workers’ fairness perceptions, job satisfaction and turnover intentions: Evidence from linked employer-employee data

Research output: Working paper › Working papers

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Firms’ wage structures, workers’ fairness perceptions, job satisfaction and turnover intentions : Evidence from linked employer-employee data. / Mohrenweiser, Jens; Pfeifer, Christian.

Bonn : IZA - Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit, 2019. (Discussion paper series; No. 12821).

Research output: Working paper › Working papers

Bibtex

@techreport{405cbd2de4ca49f68c4d0623067fe186,

title = "Firms{\textquoteright} wage structures, workers{\textquoteright} fairness perceptions, job satisfaction and turnover intentions: Evidence from linked employer-employee data",

abstract = "The paper uses novel data for Germany linking worker and establishment surveys with administrative social security data for all workers in the surveyed establishments. From these data, four variables are generated that describe a firm{\textquoteright}s wage structure and the positions of workers within it: (a) workers{\textquoteright} own absolute wages, (b) workers{\textquoteright} conditional internal reference wages within firms, (c) the conditional wage dispersion in firms, and (d) workers{\textquoteright} conditional external reference wages across firms. Three empirical contributions are made: (1) the impact of firms{\textquoteright} wage structures on workers{\textquoteright} perceived wage fairness as an important organizational justice variable, (2) the impact of firms{\textquoteright} wage structures on workers{\textquoteright} job satisfaction and turnover intentions, and (3) the contribution of the fairness considerations on the overall effects of the wage structure variables on workers{\textquoteright} job satisfaction and turnover intentions. The findings suggest that equity and social status considerations as well as altruistic preferences towards co-workers and inequality aversion are important, whereas the evidence for signal considerations is limited. ",

keywords = "Economics, income comparison, inequality, fairness, job satisfaction, turnover, income comparison, inequality, fairness, job satisfaction, turnover",

author = "Jens Mohrenweiser and Christian Pfeifer",

year = "2019",

language = "English",

series = "Discussion paper series",

publisher = "IZA - Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit",

number = "12821",

address = "Germany",

type = "WorkingPaper",

institution = "IZA - Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit",

}

RIS

TY - UNPB

T1 - Firms’ wage structures, workers’ fairness perceptions, job satisfaction and turnover intentions

T2 - Evidence from linked employer-employee data

AU - Mohrenweiser, Jens

AU - Pfeifer, Christian

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - The paper uses novel data for Germany linking worker and establishment surveys with administrative social security data for all workers in the surveyed establishments. From these data, four variables are generated that describe a firm’s wage structure and the positions of workers within it: (a) workers’ own absolute wages, (b) workers’ conditional internal reference wages within firms, (c) the conditional wage dispersion in firms, and (d) workers’ conditional external reference wages across firms. Three empirical contributions are made: (1) the impact of firms’ wage structures on workers’ perceived wage fairness as an important organizational justice variable, (2) the impact of firms’ wage structures on workers’ job satisfaction and turnover intentions, and (3) the contribution of the fairness considerations on the overall effects of the wage structure variables on workers’ job satisfaction and turnover intentions. The findings suggest that equity and social status considerations as well as altruistic preferences towards co-workers and inequality aversion are important, whereas the evidence for signal considerations is limited.

AB - The paper uses novel data for Germany linking worker and establishment surveys with administrative social security data for all workers in the surveyed establishments. From these data, four variables are generated that describe a firm’s wage structure and the positions of workers within it: (a) workers’ own absolute wages, (b) workers’ conditional internal reference wages within firms, (c) the conditional wage dispersion in firms, and (d) workers’ conditional external reference wages across firms. Three empirical contributions are made: (1) the impact of firms’ wage structures on workers’ perceived wage fairness as an important organizational justice variable, (2) the impact of firms’ wage structures on workers’ job satisfaction and turnover intentions, and (3) the contribution of the fairness considerations on the overall effects of the wage structure variables on workers’ job satisfaction and turnover intentions. The findings suggest that equity and social status considerations as well as altruistic preferences towards co-workers and inequality aversion are important, whereas the evidence for signal considerations is limited.

KW - Economics

KW - income comparison

KW - inequality

KW - fairness

KW - job satisfaction

KW - turnover

KW - income comparison

KW - inequality

KW - fairness

KW - job satisfaction

KW - turnover

M3 - Working papers

T3 - Discussion paper series

BT - Firms’ wage structures, workers’ fairness perceptions, job satisfaction and turnover intentions

PB - IZA - Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit

CY - Bonn

ER -