Handbook of Organization Measurement
Pay Satisfaction
construct.pay_satisfaction
How it’s measured operationally
Beyond survey measurement, this construct is also tracked as an operational metric from records:
Survey measure of employees' satisfaction with their pay and benefits.
Sum of satisfaction ratings / Total number of responses · scoreSurvey measure of employees' perceived understanding of their compensation.
Mean of pay-understanding survey item scores · score§2The established instruments
What the field already uses — named and cited, not reproduced (item wording is copyrighted and withheld pending clearance).
- Managerial Opinion Scale — Evans (1974); original source as described in text
- Job Descriptive Index (JDI) — Smith, Kendall and Hulin (1969)
- Job Diagnostic Survey - Specific Satisfactions — Hackman and Oldham (1975)
- Pay Satisfaction Scale — Cammann, Fichman, Jenkins and Klesh, 1979; Seashore, Lawler, Mirvis and Cammann, 1982
- Job Descriptive Index — Smith, Kendall, and Hulin (referenced via Warr compendium)
- Specific Satisfactions (Job Diagnostic Survey) — Hackman and Oldham, 1975
- Specific Satisfactions (Job Diagnostic Survey) — Hackman and Oldham (1974, 1975, 1980); Oldham, Hackman and Stepina (1978)
§3The math on what we know
Synthesized priors from the live registry: pooled r, studies (k), total N, top study grade, and heterogeneity. Rows flagged for heterogeneity or single-study evidence are directional, not settled — read them as a central tendency.
What drives pay satisfaction
| Predictor | r | k | N | Grade | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pay Level | +0.23 | 1 | 50 | A | single study |
| Pay For Performance | +0.16 | 1 | 19,591 | A | single study |
What pay satisfaction predicts
| Outcome | r | k | N | Grade | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Job Satisfaction | +0.50 | 1 | 50 | A | single study |
| Organizational Commitment | +0.37 | 1 | 50 | A | single study |
| Turnover Intention | −0.35 | 1 | 50 | A | single study |
| Organizational Citizenship Behavior OCB | +0.20 | 1 | 50 | A | single study |
| Voluntary Turnover | −0.06 | 1 | 4,425 | — | single study |
§4As a model node
Where pay satisfaction sits when you drop it into a model — what feeds it, what it moves. Read left to right as a small, actionable causal claim.
Inputs (drivers)
- Pay Level+0.23
- Pay For Performance+0.16
→
Pay Satisfaction
→
Outputs (outcomes)
- Job Satisfaction+0.50
- Organizational Commitment+0.37
- Turnover Intention−0.35
- Organizational Citizenship Behavior OCB+0.20