Distributive Justice and Earned Income

This is an empirical exploration of the normative criteria for just distributions of earned income. The results indicate that the fairness of earnings is judged relative to a set of criteria which includes (but perhaps is not limited to) formal educational attainment, occupational attainment, sex, marital status and knowledge of family earnings. That is, both merit and need factors combine to produce judgments of fairness and unfairness. These criteria for just earnings appear to be held consensually and are largely independent of the raters' observable demographic attributes.