Who is satisfied with their pay? Evidence from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey

Abstract

This study is to shed more light on the relation of pay satisfaction with the average wages of individuals with the same characteristics and the deviation of the actual wages from that average (a.k.a. social comparison). The study reveals that social comparison plays a greater role in determining pay satisfaction than mere pay amount. The contribution of both factors to pay satisfaction is fairly stable and does not exhibit any drastic changes from 2002 to 2019. The deviation of actual wages from the average level contributes twice as much as the reference group average into the individual’s pay satisfaction.