We develop a revealed preference approach to measure the value of workplace amenities by analyzing how variation in non-wage job attributes affects excess mass in the earnings distribution at budget discontinuities. The approach formalizes the idea that workers are less responsive to monetary incentives when amenities constitute a larger share of total compensation. Applying this method to workplace safety during COVID-19 waves, we find that workers are willing to sacrifice 9% of their earnings to reduce weekly fatality risks by one in 100,000. The findings suggest that conventional hedonic regressions substantially under-estimate the value of workplace safety.

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6 May 2025     Paper Number CEPDP2100

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This CEP discussion paper is published under the centre's Labour programme.

This publication comes under the following theme: Work and wellbeing