JOB GRADE AND LABOR-MARKET INFORMATION EFFECTS ON SIMULATED COMPENSATION DECISIONS

A study was conducted with personnel managers to examine the relative emphasis placed on job evaluation factors (job grade) and labor market factors (supply and demand of qualified applicants) in determining sa lary allocation for nine hypothetical job classifications. The results indicated that the job evaluation factors were consistently given mor e weight than the labor market factor in the salary allocation task Im plications of the findings were discussed within the general context o f the problem of defining ''market factors'' in the public sector.