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Wage comparisons with similar and dissimilar others
Author(s) -
Sweeney Paul D.,
McFarlin Dean B.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of occupational and organizational psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.257
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 2044-8325
pISSN - 0963-1798
DOI - 10.1348/096317904x23808
Subject(s) - psychology , social comparison theory , social psychology , job satisfaction , similarity (geometry) , wage , contrast (vision) , yardstick , economics , geometry , mathematics , artificial intelligence , computer science , market economy , image (mathematics)
Considerable research has been completed on the link between social comparisons and employee satisfaction. Surprisingly, however, few of those studies contrast the effects of various comparisons with others on pay satisfaction. Based on social comparison theory, we expected that comparisons with similar others would be more important predictors of pay satisfaction than comparisons with dissimilar others. Across four studies, the degree of similarity of the comparison other was varied. In Studies 1 and 2, respondents made pay comparisons inside or outside the organization. In Studies 3 and 4, respondents made pay comparisons with referents in the same and different occupations. In all four studies we found that while similar others did provide employees with important information that affected their satisfaction, so did information about dissimilar others. We suggest that the importance of a job in our self‐definitions, with pay level being among the most overt markers, may account for our findings. Using pay as a yardstick may lead us all to widen our search for information about others, including ordinarily discrepant others. Alternative explanations and directions for research are discussed.