Vorstellungen von Lohngerechtigkeit in West- und Ostdeutschland und in der Ukraine

Conceptions of how fair or unfair the distribution of socioeconomic resources are - such as labour market income – and the principles of justice that are perceived to apply, have diverse affects on the motivations of individual actions and the stability and interaction within societies. The article focuses on subjective ideas on the fairness of earnings in two transitional societies 20 years after communism collapsed: east Germany as an example of total institutional transformation and the Ukraine as a post-Soviet society. West Germany serves as a point of reference. The analyses of representative survey data which employed a factorial survey module in order to empirically measure the fair evaluation of earnings underline that basic principles of fairness – equity, need, self-interest and adaption – vary between the three contexts and by age groups and educational degree. In the meantime in east Germany there can be observed extensive conformity with west German evaluations, in particular when examining performance criteria. Respondents in the Ukraine however orient much more strongly towards the principle of fairness according to need. Additionally, conceptions of social justice seem to be strongly oriented to the actual distributions of earnings.