Perceived Income Justice Depends on the Economy

At least half of all employees in Germany described their wages in all three survey years under consideration here - 2005, 2007, and 2009 - as just. Still, major changes occurred over this period in how people perceived their earnings. Data from the Socio- Economic Panel (SOEP) Study show that after an increase in income dissatisfaction in 2007, the percentage of the population who consider their income unjust has again decreased substantially in 2009 - at 30 percent - to 2005 levels. This suggests that in times of economic crisis, people are willing to lower their earnings expectations, while in times of economic growth - like the year 2007 - they expect to share in the benefits of increased prosperity. The analysis shows that it was mainly people in the low to medium income range and in particular skilled workers who perceived their net income as unjust, a perception that remained stable over time. This is partly due to the income taxes paid by these groups. In the upper income segment, in contrast, no negative effect of the income tax burden on perceived income justice is found. Finally, the results confirm previous studies indicating that even in a world in which everyone received the wages they subjectively perceived to be fair, income differences between men and women would still persist. Women's income expectations are significantly lower than men's - even within the individual occupational groups.Justice, SOEP, Inequality

Unfair Pay and Health: The Effects of Perceived Injustice of Earnings on Physical Health

While there is ample evidence that income inequalities influence individuals’ health status, the mechanisms behind this income inequality–health correlation are only partially understood. This study shows that inequalities evaluated on the basis of individual perceptions of injustice are a driving force behind this connection. Two main questions are addressed: Does perceiving one’s earnings as unfair affect physical health? Do such perceptions contribute to structural health inequalities? The hypotheses presented are based on the effort–reward imbalance model, according to which experiencing injustice causes stress, which can have a negative effect on individual health. Analyses of large-scale longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel of the years 2005–2010 show that female employees who perceive their earnings as unjustly low display significantly worse physical health, and that if employees perceive their earnings to be unjust for an extended period, this contributes to the deterioration of individual physical health in male and female employees. Employees from lower social classes, in particular unskilled blue-collar workers, more frequently perceive their earnings to be unjust. Experience of unjust earnings mediates the relationship between social class and physical health, if to a limited extent. Our conclusion is that differential exposure to unjust earnings contributes to the emergence of structural health inequalities

Preferences for work arrangements:A discrete choice experiment

This study investigates individual preferences for work arrangements in a discrete choice experiment. Based on sociological and economic literature, we identified six essential job attributes—earnings, job security, training opportunities, scheduling flexibility, prestige of the company, and gender composition of the work team—and mapped these into hypothetical job offers. Out of three job offers, with different specifications in the respective job attributes, respondents had to choose the offer they considered as most attractive. In 2017, we implemented our choice experiment in two large-scale surveys conducted in two countries: Germany (N = 2,659) and the Netherlands (N = 2,678). Our analyses revealed that respondents considered all six job attributes in their decision process but had different priorities for each. Moreover, we found gendered preferences. Women preferred scheduling flexibility and a company with a good reputation, whereas men preferred jobs with high earnings and a permanent contract. Despite different national labor market regulations, different target populations, and different sampling strategies for the two surveys, job preferences for German and Dutch respondents were largely parallel

Wahrgenommene Einkommensgerechtigkeit konjunkturabhängig

Gut die Hälfte der Beschäftigten in Deutschland bewertet ihr Einkommen zu allen hier betrachteten Befragungszeitpunkten - 2005, 2007 und 2009 - als gerechte Entlohnung. Bei der Beurteilung des eigenen Einkommens lassen sich aber auch deutliche Veränderungen beobachten. Die Daten des Sozio-oekonomischen Panels (SOEP) für 2009 zeigen, dass sich der Anteil derjenigen, die sich ungerecht entlohnt fühlen, nach einem zwischenzeitlichen Anstieg wieder deutlich zurückgebildet hat. Er lag 2009 mit rund 30 Prozent fast wieder auf dem Niveau von 2005. In Krisenzeiten sind Beschäftigte offensichtlich bereit, ihre Einkommensansprüche zu reduzieren, während sie in Aufschwungphasen - wie im Jahr 2007 - ihren gerechten Anteil am wirtschaftlichen Erfolg erwarten. Die Analysen machen auch deutlich, dass es gerade die Bezieher niedriger bis mittlerer Einkommen und insbesondere Facharbeiter sind, die ihr Nettoeinkommen über die Zeit stabil als ungerecht empfinden. Dazu trägt auch die Einkommensbesteuerung bei. Im oberen Einkommenssegment zeigt sich dagegen kein negativer Effekt der Steuerlast auf die Gerechtigkeitsbewertung des eigenen Nettoeinkommens. Schließlich bestätigen die Ergebnisse frühere Befunde, dass es auch in einer Welt, in der jeder das subjektiv als gerecht bewertete Einkommen erhielte, Lohnunterschiede zwischen Männern und Frauen gäbe. Die Einkommensansprüche der Frauen sind - auch innerhalb der einzelnen Berufsstatusgruppen - deutlich geringer als die der Männer.Justice, SOEP, Inequality

Erwartungen an Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Feldbericht und Codebuch zur Erwerbstätigenbefragung. Erste Welle.

Sauer C, Valet P. Erwartungen an Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Feldbericht und Codebuch zur Erwerbstätigenbefragung. Erste Welle. SFB 882 Technical Report Series. Vol 10. Bielefeld: DFG Research Center (SFB) 882 From Heterogeneities to Inequalities; 2014

Preoperative prediction of pediatric patients with effusions and edema following cardiopulmonary bypass surgery by serological and routine laboratory data

AIM: Postoperative effusions and edema and capillary leak syndrome in children after cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass constitute considerable clinical problems. Overshooting immune response is held to be the cause. In a prospective study we investigated whether preoperative immune status differences exist in patients at risk for postsurgical effusions and edema, and to what extent these differences permit prediction of the postoperative outcome. METHOD: One-day preoperative serum levels of immunoglobulins, complement, cytokines and chemokines, soluble adhesion molecules and receptors as well as clinical chemistry parameters such as differential counts, creatinine, blood coagulation status (altogether 56 parameters) were analyzed in peripheral blood samples of 75 children (aged 3–18 years) undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass surgery (29 with postoperative effusions and edema within the first postoperative week). RESULTS: Preoperative elevation of the serum level of C3 and C5 complement components, tumor necrosis factor-α, percentage of leukocytes that are neutrophils, body weight and decreased percentage of lymphocytes (all P < 0.03) occurred in children developing postoperative effusions and edema. While single parameters did not predict individual outcome, >86% of the patients with postoperative effusions and oedema were correctly predicted using two different classification algorithms. Data mining by both methods selected nine partially overlapping parameters. The prediction quality was independent of the congenital heart defect. CONCLUSION: Indicators of inflammation were selected as risk indicators by explorative data analysis. This suggests that preoperative differences in the immune system and capillary permeability status exist in patients at risk for postoperative effusions. These differences are suitable for preoperative risk assessment and may be used for the benefit of the patient and to improve cost effectiveness

Occupational gender segregation and gender differences in justice evaluations

Kruphölter S, Sauer C, Valet P. Occupational gender segregation and gender differences in justice evaluations. SFB 882 Working Paper Series. Vol 45. Bielefeld: DFG Research Center (SFB) 882 From Heterogeneities to Inequalities; 2015.Gender differences in justice evaluations of earnings are of considerable interest since the late 1970s, especially against the backdrop that women usually earn less than men but widely perceive their earnings as being more just. Newer research specifically draws attention to contextual influences in order to explain this seeming paradox. The idea of this paper is to first identify three parameters that are crucial for justice evaluations: comparison processes, status beliefs and occupational segregation. We assume that the segregation of the labor market in male and female dominated occupations influences justice evaluations of men and women. Hypotheses are tested using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) of years 2009-2013. Results indicate that women working in female dominated occupations evaluate their earnings as being less unjust than women in male-dominated occupations. Men in female-dominated occupations do not show differences in their justice evaluations compared to men in other occupations. The implications of these findings are discussed in the light of the literature on gender segregation, social comparisons, status beliefs and distributive justice

Expectations towards economy and society: codebook of the employee survey

Sauer C, Valet P, Meyer L. Expectations towards economy and society: codebook of the employee survey. SFB 882 Technical Report Series. Vol 11. Bielefeld: DFG Research Center (SFB) 882 From Heterogeneities to Inequalities; 2014

Expectations towards economy and society: codebook of the employee survey

Sauer C, Valet P, Meyer L. Expectations towards economy and society: codebook of the employee survey. SFB 882 Technical Report Series. Vol 11. Bielefeld: DFG Research Center (SFB) 882 From Heterogeneities to Inequalities; 2014