The article analyzes the connection between wage comparisons and the subjectively perceived fairness of wages. Based on the results of a large German household survey, it can be concluded that people who perceive their wages as unfair in the majority of cases also earn less than comparable persons with fair wages. From this it is concluded that the perception of injustice results from comparisons with one's peers. When unfairly paid persons are asked about adequate or fair wages, they are usually higher than the average fair wages of persons with identical characteristics.