IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v12y2025i1d10.1057_s41599-025-04908-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

ESG ratings, executive pay-for-performance sensitivity and within-firm pay gap

Author

Listed:
  • Xinze Li

    (Shandong University)

  • Xi Wang

    (Shandong University
    Dongbei University of Finance and Economics)

  • Zuoxiang Zhao

    (Beijing University of Chemical Technology)

  • Qiuyun Zhao

    (Peking University)

Abstract

Addressing the factors that contribute to within-firm pay disparities has become increasingly urgent in light of growing global income inequality. This study explores the effect of corporate ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) ratings on pay gaps using data from Chinese-listed companies between 2017 and 2021. The findings reveal that higher ESG ratings are associated with a significant widening of the pay gap between executives and ordinary employees, primarily driven by an increase in executive pay-for-performance sensitivity. Governance (G) emerges as the key factor amplifying this sensitivity. Heterogeneity analysis shows that this effect is particularly pronounced in non-state-owned and large-scale firms. Additionally, the impact is evident across various firms in traditional and highly competitive industries. These results suggest that regulators should pay closer attention to internal income distribution when promoting ESG principles, as a way to mitigate widening income inequality within firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Xinze Li & Xi Wang & Zuoxiang Zhao & Qiuyun Zhao, 2025. "ESG ratings, executive pay-for-performance sensitivity and within-firm pay gap," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-10, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:12:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-025-04908-7
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-025-04908-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-025-04908-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-025-04908-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Clemens Fuest & Andreas Peichl & Sebastian Siegloch, 2018. "Do Higher Corporate Taxes Reduce Wages? Micro Evidence from Germany," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(2), pages 393-418, February.
    2. Vikrant Vig, 2013. "Access to Collateral and Corporate Debt Structure: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(3), pages 881-928, June.
    3. Pástor, Ľuboš & Stambaugh, Robert F. & Taylor, Lucian A., 2021. "Sustainable investing in equilibrium," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 550-571.
    4. Wang, Juxian & Ma, Mengdi & Dong, Tianyi & Zhang, Zheyuan, 2023. "Do ESG ratings promote corporate green innovation? A quasi-natural experiment based on SynTao Green Finance's ESG ratings," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    5. Shira Cohen & Igor Kadach & Gaizka Ormazabal & Stefan Reichelstein, 2023. "Executive Compensation Tied to ESG Performance: International Evidence," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(3), pages 805-853, June.
    6. Deng, Xiang & Li, Weihao & Ren, Xiaohang, 2023. "More sustainable, more productive: Evidence from ESG ratings and total factor productivity among listed Chinese firms," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    7. Michael C. Jensen, 2010. "Value Maximization, Stakeholder Theory, and the Corporate Objective Function," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 22(1), pages 32-42, January.
    8. Amal Aouadi & Sylvain Marsat, 2018. "Do ESG Controversies Matter for Firm Value? Evidence from International Data," Post-Print halshs-02007374, HAL.
    9. Patrick Kline & Neviana Petkova & Heidi Williams & Owen Zidar, 2019. "Who Profits from Patents? Rent-Sharing at Innovative Firms," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(3), pages 1343-1404.
    10. Holger M. Mueller & Paige P. Ouimet & Elena Simintzi, 2017. "Wage Inequality and Firm Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(5), pages 379-383, May.
    11. Hao, Jing & He, Feng, 2022. "Corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance and green innovation: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    12. Benjamin R. Auer, 2016. "Do Socially Responsible Investment Policies Add or Destroy European Stock Portfolio Value?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 135(2), pages 381-397, May.
    13. Ho, Hillbun & Kim, Namwoon & Reza, Sadat, 2022. "CSR and CEO pay: Does CEO reputation matter?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 1034-1049.
    14. Cecilia Garcia-Penalosa & Eve Caroli & Philippe Aghion, 1999. "Inequality and Economic Growth: The Perspective of the New Growth Theories," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(4), pages 1615-1660, December.
    15. repec:dau:papers:123456789/10091 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Leone, Andrew J. & Wu, Joanna Shuang & Zimmerman, Jerold L., 2006. "Asymmetric sensitivity of CEO cash compensation to stock returns," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1-2), pages 167-192, October.
    17. Alan J. Auerbach, 2018. "Measuring the Effects of Corporate Tax Cuts," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 32(4), pages 97-120, Fall.
    18. Chen, Yonghuai & Li, Tao & Zeng, Qing & Zhu, Bo, 2023. "Effect of ESG performance on the cost of equity capital: Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 348-364.
    19. Joel F Houston & Hongyu Shan, 2022. "Corporate ESG Profiles and Banking Relationships," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 35(7), pages 3373-3417.
    20. Mbaye Fall Diallo & Norchène Ben Dahmane Mouelhi & Mahesh Gadekar & Marie Schill, 2021. "CSR Actions, Brand Value, and Willingness to Pay a Premium Price for Luxury Brands: Does Long-Term Orientation Matter?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 169(2), pages 241-260, March.
    21. Amal Aouadi & Sylvain Marsat, 2018. "Do ESG Controversies Matter for Firm Value? Evidence from International Data," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 151(4), pages 1027-1047, September.
    22. Carter, Mary Ellen & Choi, Jen & Sedatole, Karen L., 2021. "The effect of supplier industry competition on pay-for-performance incentive intensity," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2).
    23. Chong-En Bai & Jiangyong Lu & Zhigang Tao, 2006. "The Multitask Theory of State Enterprise Reform: Empirical Evidence from China," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(2), pages 353-357, May.
    24. Ikram, Atif & Li, Zhichuan (Frank) & Minor, Dylan, 2023. "CSR-contingent executive compensation contracts," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhonghua Cheng & Lele Han, 2025. "Environmental and social governance performance and enterprise total factor productivity," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(2), pages 1411-1428, April.
    2. Carbonnier, Clément & Malgouyres, Clément & Py, Loriane & Urvoy, Camille, 2022. "Who benefits from tax incentives? The heterogeneous wage incidence of a tax credit," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    3. Chau, Le & Anh, Le & Duc, Vo, 2025. "Valuing ESG: How financial markets respond to corporate sustainability," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(3).
    4. Gaia Soana, Maria, 2024. "Does ESG contracting align or compete with stakeholder interests?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    5. Clément Carbonnier & Clément Malgouyres & Loriane Py & Camille Urvoy, 2019. "Wage Incidence of a Large Corporate Tax Credit: Contrasting Employee - and Firm - Level Evidence," Working Papers hal-03393095, HAL.
    6. Li, Yunzhong & Zhao, Yu & Ye, Chengfang & Li, Xiaofan & Tao, Yunqing, 2024. "ESG ratings and the cost of equity capital in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    7. Wang, Ren & Bian, Yuxiang & Xiong, Xiong, 2024. "Impact of ESG preferences on investments and emissions in a DSGE framework," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    8. Tan, Xiujie & Liu, Gufeng & Cheng, Si, 2024. "How does ESG performance affect green transformation of resource-based enterprises: Evidence from Chinese listed enterprises," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    9. Ruan, Lei & Li, Jianing & Huang, Siqi, 2024. "News or noise? ESG disclosure and stock price synchronicity," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PB).
    10. Wang, Hong & Wang, Wei, 2024. "Chairperson gender, policy compliance and ESG performance of family firms," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 96(PC).
    11. Chai, Hongrui & Cheng, Zhenhao & Wu, Weixing, 2025. "Is ESG performance a protective umbrella for ESG violations?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    12. He, Feng & Chen, Longxuan & Wu, Haomin, 2024. "Competitive imitation and corporate innovation in private enterprises," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PB).
    13. Xiao, Renrui & Xu, Pingguo & Huang, Baocong, 2024. "Tax incentives and firm social insurance contributions: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    14. Rodrigo Zeidan, 2022. "Why don't asset managers accelerate ESG investing? A sentiment analysis based on 13,000 messages from finance professionals," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(7), pages 3028-3039, November.
    15. Bang, Jeongseok & Ryu, Doojin & Yu, Jinyoung, 2023. "ESG controversies and investor trading behavior in the Korean market," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    16. Luo, Runmei & Ye, Yong, 2024. "Do firms listen to the ESG voices of minority investors? Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PA).
    17. Gregor Dorfleitner & Christian Kreuzer & Christian Sparrer, 2020. "ESG controversies and controversial ESG: about silent saints and small sinners," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(5), pages 393-412, September.
    18. Li, Huijing & Clancey-Shang, Danjue & Fu, Chengbo & Li, Tianze, 2025. "Does the world need more traditional energy? A comparative analysis of ESG activities, free cash flow, and capital market implications," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    19. Jiang, Yichi & Zhang, Xuanyue & Yao, Shujie, 2025. "On ESG and corporate employment decision: Evidence from Chinese listed firms in 2009–2022," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 854-869.
    20. Kaouther Chebbi, 2024. "Examining the interplay of sustainable development, corporate governance, and stock Price crash risk: Insights from ESG practices," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(1), pages 1291-1309, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:12:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-025-04908-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.