How Much Does Your Boss Make? The Effects of Salary Comparisons

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: Cullen, Zoe; Perez-Truglia, Ricardo
• 署名单位: Harvard University; University of California System; University of California Berkeley
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/717891
• 发表日期: 2022
• 关键词: income; identification; preferences; CONTRACTS; utility; work

摘要

The vast majority of the pay inequality in organizations comes from differences in pay between employees and their bosses. But are employees aware of these pay disparities? Are employees demotivated by this inequality? To address these questions, we conducted a natural field experiment with a sample of 2,060 employees from a multibillion-dollar corporation in Southeast Asia. We document large misperceptions among employees about the salaries of their managers and smaller but still significant misperceptions of the salaries of their peers, and we show that these perceptions have a significant causal effect on the employees' own behavior.