First: Imagine that you work at a job and you find out what others are paid who are doing the same work as you and who are equally experienced, qualified and productive.
Second: Imagine that you have applied for a job and received a salary offer. Imagine another employee told you what others are paid who are doing the same work at the firm, and who are equally experienced, qualified, and productive as you. Assume that if you accept a job, you will stay at that job for a number of years, and that the relative salaries will remain the same; that is, even if you get raises, the raises given others will be the same, so differences in pay among co-workers will not change.
For example, here are the yearly salaries at two companies, where there are 5 people doing the same type of work:
Company 1: $20,000; $40,000; $46,000; $48,000; $50,000
Company 2: $40,000; $50,000; $52,000, $70,000; $72,000
There are two questions we ask you to consider:
Imagine that you work for Company 1 and are the one who is paid $20,000. How would you feel? Next, imagine that you are paid $50,000 per year. How happy would you be with your salary in that case? Please look again at the list for Company 1, and imagine yourself earning each of the different amounts.
Now imagine that you work for Company 2 and are the one earning $72,000. How would you feel? Next, imagine that you are paid $50,000 per year at Company 2. How would you feel in that case? If you were paid $50,000, would you be happier at Company 1 or Company 2?
Finally, imagine you are offered a salary of $50,000 from BOTH companies; how likely would you be to accept the job, if you had a choice between Company 1 and Company 2? Assume that both companies have the same resources so that raises (and everything else) would be the same at both companies and stay the same over time.
Your tasks will be (1) to rate how dissatisfied or satisfied (how happy or unhappy), you would be if you received each of the salaries at each of the companies, and (2) to rate how likely you would be to accept a job offer (of a given salary) at each company, given the salary offer and the amounts paid to others doing the same work who are equally qualified, experienced, and productive.
* Please make your ratings on the 7 point scales by clicking buttons to indicate how satisfied or dissatisfied you would feel about your salary if you worked there, and how likely or unlikely you would be to take a job offer.