Multi-tier wage structures in a unionized environment: their effects upon worker perceptions

Abstract

The following is an examination of the effects of multi-tier pay structures upon worker perceptions of pay equity. This study represents a synthesis and replication of two earlier studies that achieved substantially different results. The core elements of the two primary studies (Martin and Peterson, 1987 and Cappelli and Sherer, 1990) were replicated in a unionized retail food operation. It was hypothesized that top tier workers would have more positive perceptions of pay equity, pay satisfaction, company commitment, and union commitment than would lower tier workers. Further, it was hypothesized that positive perceptions of job mobility would be inversely related to the above measures. Support was found for between-tier differences in both pay satisfaction and pay equity. Support was also found for the inverse relationship between job mobility and all of the above dependent measures.