It is well established that attracting, motivating and retaining talented employees promotes firm value. Less clear is whether organizational social responsibility can contribute to this outcome. One justification offered is that employees are willing to work for less pay for a more socially responsible organization. However, evidence of this form of “social preferences” is scarce. To examine this issue, we conduct a field experiment in an online labor market. Employees could choose to work on behalf of one of two organizations that differed in the social value of their missions. The work itself was identical in either case, ruling out any preferences over job content. Wage offers were randomly determined. We find that 49% of employees accept lower wages to work for an organization that they perceive to be more socially responsible, with a wage discount of 12% to 18% for the more socially responsible organization. We conclude that organizational social purpose contributes to the employee value proposition. (Coauthor: N. Craig Smith)

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