Age, pay importance and pay satisfaction for contingent and non-contingent groups

The relationships among age, pay importance, and pay satisfaction were investigated for 180 female employees, with job and salary level controlled, in two organizations differing in the reward contingency system. Four previously used measures of pay importance, and four measures of pay satisfaction were used. Little agreement was found among the importance measures, while good agreement was found among the pay satisfaction measures. No relationship was found between age and pay importance, nor between age and pay satisfaction. Only a moderate negative relationship was found between pay importance and pay satisfaction. There were no significant age-importance-satisfaction relationships for either the Contingent or the Non-contingent group. Differences between the two groups were found for the pay satisfaction and perceived pay determiner relationships. The 'correct' perception of the organizational reward determiners was related to pay satisfaction.