Pay satisfaction bibliometric research and its implications

Abstract Pay satisfaction is an important topic in core domains of human resource management, such as employee engagement, motivation, and job satisfaction. We present an overview of the research on pay satisfaction by conducting a bibliometric analysis to examine the performance and intellectual structure of the pay satisfaction literature, curated from 539 articles in the Web of Science between 1966 and 2024. Using citation and co-word analysis with VOSviewer software, we identified emerging themes, dominant trends, and critical knowledge gaps. Our review highlights (1) the most cited articles, (2) the most prolific authors, journals, countries, affiliations and (3) the major clusters or themes of research. The results provide practical insights for management and suggest future research directions to strengthen the strategic relevance of pay satisfaction in organizational contexts.