A Firm’s Information Environment and Employee Wages

We examine the relation between a firm’s information environment and the wages paid to its rank-and-file employees. Using establishment-level Census data, we document that firms with poorer information environments, measured by less readable annual reports and the lack of management earnings forecasts, pay their workers more. This relation is stronger when employees own more stock in their firm, bear greater information acquisition costs, and have more influence in the wage-setting process. We also utilize instrumental variables and exploit the passage of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act as a shock to a firm’s information environment and find evidence suggesting a causal effect of disclosures on wages. Overall, these results are consistent with the theory of compensating wage differentials, as employees appear to receive higher wages for bearing additional information risk associated with working for a firm with a poorer information environment.