Research Article
Hidden Pay, Hidden Voice: Justice as a Mediator and Pay Level as a Boundary Condition
1 Ph.D. candidate in Business Administration at Seoul National University, 2 Professor, College of Business Administration at Seoul National University
Published: January 2026 · Vol. 55 No. 2 · pp. 613-645
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17287/kmr.2026.55.2.613
Full Text
Abstract
Despite extensive research on the organizational consequences of pay information disclosure, relatively little is known about how pay transparency and pay secrecy shape employees' voice behavior. This research addresses this gap by examining how pay information disclosure indirectly influences employee voice behavior through perceptions of organizational justice. We tested our theoretical model across two complementary time-lagged survey studies. Study 1, conducted with South Korean employees (N = 203), provided initial evidence that pay secrecy reduces both promotive and prohibitive voice behavior by lowering organizational justice perceptions. Study 2, using a sample of U.S. employees (N = 182), replicated these findings and further tested pay level as a boundary condition. Results showed that pay information disclosure indirectly increased both promotive and prohibitive voice behavior through heightened perceptions of organizational justice. Moreover, this indirect effect was contingent upon employees' pay level, such that the positive indirect effect of pay transparency on voice via justice perceptions was stronger among lower-paid employees. Together, these findings contribute to research on pay information disclosure and employee voice by identifying organizational justice as a key mechanism and pay level as a meaningful boundary condition.
