Joerg Heining (Institute for Employment Research)
Sydnee Caldwell and Ingrid Haegele
Do high-paying firms provide worse non-wage amenities? We estimate firm-specific amenity valuations using discrete choice experiments embedded in a large-scale survey of German workers linked to administrative records. Workers rank hypothetical offers from real firms they would consider joining, with randomized wages identifying money-metric valuations. Valuations vary substantially across firms and demographic groups, yet a single index performs surprisingly well. Valuations are approximately orthogonal to firm wage premia; they therefore do not offset between-firm wage inequality. Male-female differences in amenity valuations explain part of the gender wage gap.