The main factor determining the satisfaction of Russians with their salary was the difference between their actual and average salary in the reference group, that is, among people with similar characteristics. At the same time, the size of his own salary turned out to be secondary. This is evidenced by new research by the National Research University Higher School of Economics, which Naked Science refers to.

Anastasia Dubnovitskaya from the National Research University Higher School of Economics used data from the Russian Monitoring of the Economic Situation and Health of the Population of the National Research University Higher School of Economics (RLMS) from 2002 to 2018 in her study. It turned out that in Russia social comparison plays a much larger role in determining salary satisfaction than the expected or actual salary itself.

Moreover, a higher salary of other people can create both a negative and a positive effect. If some higher earnings of colleagues with similar characteristics (age, gender, education, skills, etc.) cause a feeling of injustice, envy or rivalry, then other respondents tend to consider the salary of the reference group as their likely future and not show dissatisfaction.

There was also found little difference between individual groups in the effect of social comparison on salary satisfaction. For example, for people with the lowest incomes, the effect of social comparison decreases. For them, the size of their own salary is also important.

bbabo.Net