Happier with the Same: Job Satisfaction of Disadvantaged Workers

Abstract

In recent years there has been progressive recognition that individuals' self-perceptions of their wellbeing usefully complement objective welfare indicators. Wellbeing in relation to work, captured by self-reported job satisfaction, has not been an exception. However, job satisfaction evaluations depend not only on the objective circumstances workers experience in their jobs, but also on their subjective dispositions, such as their aspirations, expectations or personal evaluation criteria. We use matched employer-employee data from the UK and a within job modelling strategy to unveil whether and how subjective dispositions influencing job satisfaction vary across workers with different socio-demographic characteristics. We find that personal characteristics matter substantially more than job characteristics in determining job satisfaction, and that workers from disadvantaged collectives (i.e. female, very old or very young, non-white, homosexual or non-degree-educated) report higher satisfaction with the same jobs than those from advantaged collectives (i.e. male, middle-aged, non-white, heterosexual or non-degreeeducated).

Worked hours, job satisfaction and self-perceived health

“…However, fixed effects results in a dramatic loss in sample size which leads to poor estimates, in this case, the Hausman test (applied to the dichotomized self-perceived health) favours random effects. Moreover, fixed effects drops time-invariant covariates, such as education level, which can be problematic because there is evidence that that workers with disadvantaged statuses report higher satisfaction with the same jobs than those with advantaged statuses (Perales & Tomaszewski, 2016). Additionaly, as health status is a recursive phenomena, we condition for lagged self-perceived health, so that the estimation based on random effects by maximum likelihood is the natural alternative.…”

‘A Minute’s a Life-Time in Fast-Food!’: Managerial Job Quality in the Quick Service Restaurant Sector

“…There is of course a danger in relying too heavily on subjective interpretations (see Brown et al, 2012: 1011) – the realm of psychological theorists. Job satisfaction ratings say little about the quality of jobs (Perales and Tomaszewski, 2016: 701) and the fact that disadvantaged workers may become habituated to injurious job characteristics does not render ‘bad’ jobs ‘good’. Kalleberg (2016: 124) usefully reminds us that while it is clear job quality depends on the characteristics of both jobs and people, we do not yet have unanimity on a model of what comprises good jobs.…”

Gender differences in job satisfaction among disabled workers

“…Employee job satisfaction refers to “a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experiences” [ 15 ]. Thus, job satisfaction can be defined as the utility that people gain from their work [ 16 ]. Recent empirical analysis has considered employees’ own perceptions of their job, since these are related not only to social inclusion but also to employee performance, absenteeism, organizational commitment, and turnover [ 17 – 20 ].…”