Do Comparison Wages Play a Major Role in Determining Overall Job Satisfaction? Evidence from Australia

A vast research literature indicates that comparison wages play a key role in determining job satisfaction. To examine this in the case of Australia, comparison wages are first constructed using two different measures, namely (1) cell average wages by age, gender and education level; and (2) ranked position of an individual’s wages in each cell. Then, using the first six waves of the HILDA Survey dataset, a random effects ordered probit model is utilized to predict overall job satisfaction. The findings of the study show that both own wages and comparison wages have an impact on overall job satisfaction. Comparison wages computed using the ranked position of an individual’s wages within a cell have an equal effect as that of own wages. The study further confirms that the ranked position of an individual’s wages in each cell matters more than cell average wages. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014