Job Pressure, the Work-Family Interface, and the Sense of Distributive Injustice: An Elaboration of Work-Related Inputs among Twenty-First Century Workers

Research in social psychology demonstrates that the sense of distributive injustice has emotional, health, and behavioral consequences. It is therefore important to assess how individuals come to perceive their earnings as unjust. I provide new insights to this question by integrating perspectives in distributive justice, the stress process, and the work-family interface. Specifically, I describe a model that delineates how excessive work pressures elevate workers’ sense of what they should earn through actions and strains in the work-family interface. Using data from a 2017 sample of Canadian workers, the results indicate that higher job pressure is associated with a greater expectation of rewards. Part of this association is indirect through role blurring behavior and work-to-family conflict, and this mechanism is intensified for parents. Collectively, these discoveries expand the scope of what counts as inputs in shaping employees’ sense of what they should justly earn.