According to research from Cornell, people prefer to collaborate with higher-paid colleagues on work projects, but they tend to hire subordinates with a lower pay history than their own. The study aimed to understand how growing pay transparency in the workplace might influence employee behavior.

As more companies adopt pay transparency—whether through legal requirements or employee sharing—and encourage teamwork, it’s becoming more important to understand how workers view pay differences, the researchers explain.

Key signals

Some experts have suggested that pay transparency could make workers avoid higher-paid colleagues out of resentment. But the researchers thought that people might instead use salary as a signal of competence.

To test this, they ran three experiments where participants were given hypothetical information about colleagues’ salaries and asked whom they would prefer to work with.

In the first experiment, 171 economics Ph.D. students were asked to bid on a project and choose a partner, knowing their potential partners’ bids. Most (65%) chose to work with the person who requested the higher pay.

The second experiment, involving 171 online participants, had similar results—73% initially chose the higher-paid colleague. However, when participants were told that both colleagues had the same skills and experience, that number dropped to 60%.

In the third experiment, 375 participants named four real-life colleagues, two they had worked with and two they hadn’t, and were asked to imagine their salaries. When choosing a project partner, 58% preferred the higher-paid colleague when it was someone they had worked with before.

Reflecting ability

The researchers conclude that people often assume higher pay reflects greater competence and believe working with higher-paid colleagues will benefit them.

Finally, in a fourth experiment, 138 participants with hiring experience were asked to choose between two job candidates with identical skills. Most (71%) preferred to hire the candidate with a lower pay history, possibly reflecting the belief that pay should align with rank.

Overall, the findings suggest that, contrary to expectations, pay differences might actually encourage collaboration rather than discourage it.