THE FAIR WAGE-EFFORT HYPOTHESIS side for different pay is difficult said Mr. Olson of Giant Foods, about half of the supermarket chains workers are in the lower pay tier [Salpukas, 1987, p D22] E Literature, Jealousy, and retribution Jealousy and retribution, the relation between equity and performance are not recent discoveries of psychologists and sociolo- gists: they are part of everyone's experience Literature offers many xcellent examples, such as the story of Joseph [Bible, Genesis, 37-50]. Joseph's father, Jacob loved him more than all his children and made him a coat of many colors. When Joseph,s brothers saw that their father loved him most of all, they hated him. One day when Joseph was in the countryside they threw him into a pit, from which he was fortuitously rescued and sold into slavery. when Jacob heard of Joseph s presumed death, he wept inconsolably This sad story of Jacob, Joseph, and his brothers is an example of management failure made worse by inequitable rewards F. Personnel management Texts Textbooks on personnel management regard the need for equitable treatment of workers as obvious. By way of illustration Dessler[1984, p. 223] writes: The need for equity is perhaps the mos ant factor in determining pay rates Externally, pay must compare fave ith those in other organizations Ill find it hard to attract and retain employees Pay rates must also be uitable internally in that each employee should view his or her pay as equitable ven other employees pay rates in the organization.(Emphasis in last sentence added .) Kochan and Barocci, who view equity as most important in experts,”” inions of compensation systems, quote approvingly from a War Labor Board project(by William H. Davis: "There is no single factor in the whole field of labor relations that does more to break down morale create individual dissatisfaction, encourage absenteeism, increase labor turnover and hamper production than obviously unjust inequalities in the wage rates paid to different individuals in the same labor group within the same plant"[Kochan and Barocci, 1985, p. 249 Carroll and Tosi [1977, p. 303] write"Pay satisfaction is influenced by what an individual gets as compared to what he wan and considers fair. The fairness of pay(perceived equity of pay) determined largely by an individuals comparison of himself and his pay to other reference persons and theirs [sic]