The DOI matches its Crossref record; 4 of the 4 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
How Much (More) Should CEOs Make? A Universal Desire for More Equal Pay
Open accessAbstract
Do people from different countries and different backgrounds have similar preferences for how much more the rich should earn than the poor? Using survey data from 40 countries ( N = 55,238), we compare respondents’ estimates of the wages of people in different occupations—chief executive officers, cabinet ministers, and unskilled workers—to their ideals for what those wages should be. We show that ideal pay gaps between skilled and unskilled workers are significantly smaller than estimated pay gaps and that there is consensus across countries, socioeconomic status, and political beliefs. Moreover, data from 16 countries reveals that people dramatically underestimate actual pay inequality. In the United States—where underestimation was particularly pronounced—the actual pay ratio of CEOs to unskilled workers (354:1) far exceeded the estimated ratio (30:1), which in turn far exceeded the ideal ratio (7:1). In sum, respondents underestimate actual pay gaps, and their ideal pay gaps are even further from reality than those underestimates.
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“American respondents underestimated the actual difference in income between CEOs and unskilled workers (354:1)”
From The psychology of social class: How socioeconomic status impacts thought, feelings, and behaviour (2018) · cites this paper as Kiatpongsan & Norton, 2014
In the citing paper
“their preferences regarding this difference (7:1) were more egalitarian than were their estimates (30:1).”
From The psychology of social class: How socioeconomic status impacts thought, feelings, and behaviour (2018) · cites this paper as Kiatpongsan & Norton, 2014
Citations
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- International Labour Organization, 2013, Global Wage Report 2012/13
- Mishel L., 2013, CEO pay in 2012 was extraordinarily high relative to typical workers and other high earners
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Metadata
- Authors
- Kiatpongsan, S., & Norton, M. I.
- Affiliations
- Chulalongkorn University (TH)
- Harvard University (US)
- ORCID
- Norton, Michael I.
- Venue
- Perspectives on Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2014-11
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 587-593
- ISSN
- 1745-6916 (ISSN-L)
- 1745-6924
- OpenAlex
- W2039675961
- Cited by
- 337
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 21 · 2025: 26 · 2024: 40 · 2023: 46 · 2022: 39 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 24 · 2019: 42 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 51.03
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- nrs.harvard.edu
- Locations
- Perspectives on Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Income, Poverty, and Inequality
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Labor market dynamics and wage inequality
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Social Policy and Reform Studies
- Keywords
- wage inequality, CEO compensation, wage gap, occupational pay, cabinet ministers, low-skilled workers, cross-national comparison, political beliefs, socioeconomic status
- MeSH terms
- Commerce, Cross-Cultural Comparison, Humans, Income, Political Systems, Politics, United States, Models, Economic, Internationality
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