Inequity at work: Its measurement and association with worker health

Abstract

The equity theory of Adams (1963, 1965) predicts that people pursue a balance between their investments in and the rewards gained from their work, such that their own investment/reward ratio is the same as that of similar others. Disturbance of this balance is expected to result in a range of negative outcomes, even if people are comparatively well off. The current study among a representative sample of 1297 Finnish workers examined two assumptions of this theory more closely, namely (1) whether the relationship between inequity and selected health-related outcome variables is U-shaped (is receiving too much as detrimental as receiving too little?), and (2) whether the reference to 'similar others' should be included in the measure tapping inequity. Multivariate analysis of variance only partly confirmed the hypothesis that the relationship between inequity and selected outcome variables is U-shaped. The reference to 'similar others' in the measurement of inequity seems to be superfluous.