Do Performance-Based Pay and Pay Competitiveness Moderate the Relation Between Lower-Level Employees Total Compensation and Job Satisfaction? Evidence from South Korea

Decades of international multidisciplinary studies have examined how compensation affects employees and organizations, but they neither specify the boundary conditions for employee job satisfaction nor differentiate the effects of pay on job satisfaction of employees at differing tiers within an organization. We explore whether performance-based pay and pay competitiveness moderate the relation between total compensation and job satisfaction among lower-level employees in South Korea. To investigate boundary conditions for that relation, we use performance-based pay and pay competitiveness as variables that tie compensation structure to job satisfaction. Drawing from data for 2,281 employees at 470 South Korean firms, we consider how two variables—incentive compensation and pay competitiveness—influence job satisfaction of lower-level employees. First, we confirmed a positive relationship between compensation and job satisfaction, and second, we found that the relationship is stronger among employees of firms where average compensation is below what is paid elsewhere.