Abstract

Wage differences between different ethnic groups have many causes and lead to the groups of people affected feeling that their income is unfairly too low. However, there are theoretical arguments and empirical evidence to suggest that it is not only the absolute level of wages that causes feelings of unfairness, but also relative wages. In order to better understand whether and why migrants differ from natives in their perception of the fairness of their own wages, it is therefore not sufficient to simply compare wage satisfaction between members of both groups with similar wage levels. When examining perceptions of the fairness of one's own wages and ethnic differences, it is also crucial to distinguish between those whose wages are ‘objectively’ unfairly low and those who are fairly remunerated, as there is ample evidence that perceived and actual unfair treatment often do not coincide. Various possible differences between the two groups can be derived from theory. In this project, we therefore distinguish between employees who earn what comparable employees with the same individual, professional and job-related characteristics earn and those who earn less. We examine whether migrants are more or less likely than majority workers to perceive their pay as fair when they are not paid fairly – or as unfair when they are paid fairly – relative to comparable co-workers.