Who Should Get What? Fairness Judgments of the Distribution of Earnings

Previous traditions of distributive-justice research assume the existence of a normative structure for making judgments about fairness of allocations of social goods, such as earnings. Does a consensual normative framework for judging the fairness of distributions of earnings exist in the U.S. population? What principles underlie popular judgments concerning earnings distributions? Data indicate both that judgments of earnings fairness are not idiosyncratic and that they involve individual and group differences related to considerations of merit and need. Some tolerance for variation in earnings among house-holds is noted, and the same factors accounting for earnings-fairness judgments justify earnings considered fair. Considerable agreement exists concerning what principles are relevant to earnings-fairness judgments, while disagreement concerning how to apply these standards in practice is admitted. Apparently the standards for earnings judgments derive both from conceptions of the empirical distribution of earnings and from underlying values concerning what is fair and just.