Values and Inequality: Prosocial Jobs and the College Wage Premium

Employers often recruit workers by invoking corporate social responsibility, organizational purpose, or other claims to a prosocial mission. In an era of substantial labor market inequality, commentators typically dismiss these as hypocritical: employers turn out be no more generous with low-wage than are employers. this article, we argue that commitments in fact inadvertently reduce earnings but through different channel generosity. Building on research job values, hypothesize college graduates willing nongraduates sacrifice pay for impact. When appeal they can thus disproportionately higher-educated workers. We test theory data online U.S. postings. find jobs requiring degree post lower do standard postings exactly the same requirements; not require degree, however, differently from low-education jobs. This gap reduces aggregate wage premium around 5 percent. present variety supplementary evidence using data, worker survey responses, and vignette experiment hiring managers. The findings reveal unintended consequence employers’ embrace values: it offsets macro-level inequality.