Do companies compare employees’ salaries? Evidence from stated-owned enterprise group

IF 1.9 Q2 BUSINESS, FINANCE

China Journal of Accounting Research Pub Date : 2022-09-01 DOI:10.1016/j.cjar.2022.100252

Chuang Lu , Yuhao Niu

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引用次数: 1

Abstract

The mechanism by which enterprises set salaries is vitally important to employees and is especially relevant to the reform of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). This paper investigates the effect of comparing employee compensation based on a sample of A-share SOE groups from 2008 to 2018. We find that when employee compensation at one company sharply increases, the employee compensation of other companies controlled by the same group will increase sharply in the following year. Further analysis shows that when employees’ sense of unfair compensation is stronger, when employees are less replaceable and when enterprises’ ability to pay is stronger, the effect of employee pay comparison is stronger. Increased employee salary does not improve enterprise performance, however, suggesting that such salary adjustment is ineffective. This paper expands the research on employee compensation and provides useful insights for optimizing the design of compensation contracts and promoting compensation reform in SOEs.

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公司会比较员工的薪水吗?证据来自国有企业集团

企业确定工资的机制对员工至关重要，尤其与国有企业改革息息相关。本文以2008 - 2018年a股国有企业集团为样本，研究了比较员工薪酬的效果。我们发现，当一家公司的员工薪酬大幅增加时，同一集团控制的其他公司的员工薪酬在接下来的一年也会大幅增加。进一步分析表明，当员工薪酬不公平感越强、员工可替代性越低、企业支付能力越强时，员工薪酬比较效应越强。然而，提高员工薪酬并不能提高企业绩效，说明这种薪酬调整是无效的。本文拓展了对员工薪酬的研究，为优化薪酬合同设计、推进国有企业薪酬改革提供了有益的见解。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

China Journal of Accounting Research BUSINESS, FINANCE-

CiteScore

4.70

自引率

0.00%

发文量

295

审稿时长

15 weeks

期刊介绍： The focus of the China Journal of Accounting Research is to publish theoretical and empirical research papers that use contemporary research methodologies to investigate issues about accounting, corporate finance, auditing and corporate governance in the Greater China region, countries related to the Belt and Road Initiative, and other emerging and developed markets. The Journal encourages the applications of economic and sociological theories to analyze and explain accounting issues within the legal and institutional framework, and to explore accounting issues under different capital markets accurately and succinctly. The published research articles of the Journal will enable scholars to extract relevant issues about accounting, corporate finance, auditing and corporate governance related to the capital markets and institutional environment.