企业ESG表现与职工薪酬相对差距——基于企业层面“卡尔多事实”的经验证据

Corporate ESG Performance and Relative Pay Gap Among Employees——Empirical Evidence Based on Kaldor's Facts at the Enterprise Level

实现共同富裕是中国特色社会主义的本质要求,企业良好的ESG表现对优化其薪酬分配格局或具有重要影响,有助于夯实共同富裕的微观基础。以2009—2022年中国沪深A股上市公司为研究对象,从企业普通员工与高管薪酬差距视角出发,实证检验了企业ESG表现对职工薪酬相对差距的影响及作用机制。研究发现,企业良好的ESG表现缩小了职工薪酬相对差距,且通过改善企业就业技能结构、提高生产技术水平以及强化外部监督等渠道,缩小了职工薪酬相对差距。异质性分析结果显示,在大规模企业、所在地区营商环境较差企业和生命周期处于衰退期企业中,企业ESG表现对职工薪酬相对差距的负向影响更加显著。针对ESG三个维度的进一步分析发现:企业良好的环境表现通过改善企业就业技能结构、提高生产技术水平缩小了职工薪酬相对差距;企业良好的社会表现通过与基准回归相同的渠道缩小了职工薪酬相对差距;企业良好的治理表现却在一定程度上扩大了职工薪酬相对差距。因此,企业要将ESG理念融入发展战略,缩小职工薪酬相对差距,进而促进共同富裕。

Achieving common prosperity for all is an essential requirement of socialism with Chinese characteristics,and a good environmental,social,and governance(ESG)performance may have an important impact on optimizing the pay distribution pattern of enterprises and contribute to solidifying the microfoundations of common prosperity.This study takes China's A-share non-financial listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2009 to 2022 as samples,and empirically tests the impact of ESG performance on the relative pay gap among employees and its mechanisms from the perspective of the executive-employee pay gap.The results show that a good ESG performance narrows the relative pay gap among employees,and this effect is achieved by improving the enterprise's employment skill structure,enhancing its production technology level,and strengthening external supervisory forces.Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the negative impact of corporate ESG performance on the relative pay gap among employees is particularly significant in large-scale enterprises,enterprises situated in regions with unfavorable business environments,and those in the declining phase of their life cycle.Further analysis reveals that a good environmental performance narrows the relative pay gap among employees by improving the enterprise's employment skill structure and enhancing its production technology level;a good social performance narrows the relative pay gap among employees through the same channels as those in the benchmark regression;and a good governance performance has,to some extent,widened the relative pay gap.Therefore,enterprises should integrate ESG concepts into their development strategies to narrow the relative pay gap among employees and promote common prosperity.