A Cross-section Analysis of the Fairness -of-pay Perception of UK Employees

This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of individuals’ fairness perceptions by using cross-section data from the British Social Attitudes Survey to estimate what seem to be the first fairness perceptions-of-pay equations in the literature. The results suggest that, consistent with the existence of discrimination in the labour market, non-white workers perceive their pay as disadvantageously unfair. In contrast, a rather interesting finding is that women’s fairness-ofpay perceptions are higher than that of men. The findings suggest that tackling pay alone will not eliminate feelings of underpayment. There is also evidence that with age, workers feel less fairly paid.