Job satisfaction and ‘welfare‐to‐work‘: is any job a good job for Australian single mothers?

Abstract

This exploratory study sought to assess the job satisfaction of employed Australian single mothers who had mandatory employment participation requirements. In particular, we sought to identify the characteristics of the job and the individual that were closely associated with participant's job satisfaction. Self‐report data on job satisfaction, employment characteristics and parenting stress were collected from 155 employed single mothers. Participant job satisfaction was compared to female Australian population norms and linear regression analyses determined the job‐related and individual predictors of single mothers' job satisfaction. Findings from this exploratory study revealed that single mothers involved in a mandatory welfare‐to‐work program experienced significantly lower job satisfaction than the Australian female population. The individual variable, parental distress, negatively predicted each of the six job satisfaction domains while being employed on a casual basis was inversely associated with three domains (job security, work hours and overall job satisfaction). The Australian government purported that making the transition from welfare to work would improve wellbeing for program participants, under the assumption that ‘any job's a good job‘. However, the relatively low levels of job satisfaction experienced by single mothers in the current study provide little support for this assumption.

Sustaining transitions from welfare to work: the perceptions of employers and employment service providers

“…In one recent study, mothers who were working and had received Parenting Payment (single) were found to be employed casually at twice the national rate for employed women, and casual employment was negatively associated with mothers' satisfaction with their job security, hours of work and overall job satisfaction (Cook & Noblet 2012). In one recent study, mothers who were working and had received Parenting Payment (single) were found to be employed casually at twice the national rate for employed women, and casual employment was negatively associated with mothers' satisfaction with their job security, hours of work and overall job satisfaction (Cook & Noblet 2012).…”

The impact of welfare to work on parents and their children

“…This was found to damage parents' self-worth, self-esteem and quality of life (Blaxland 2013;Bodsworth 2010, 49;Grahame and Marston 2012, 80;Cook and Noblet 2012;Cook 2012;McArthur et al 2013). These strains have been contended to be associated with the poor quality of jobs that program participants hold, that make balancing working and caring responsibilities difficult in the context of inadequate resources (Cook and Noblet 2012). However, as the research on the financial impacts of Welfare to Work have found, the financial costs and benefits of work only exacerbate rather than alleviate these concerns.…”

“…The longitudinal analysis from Cook and Noblet (2012), which is most able to discern patterns of causality, found that a compulsory increase in work hours in order to meet activity requirements decreased single parents' subjective wellbeing. This result was posited to be associated with the poor job quality that participants reported at baseline.…”

“…Only one academic study has attempted to systematically determine whether the 2005 Welfare to Work reforms increased single parents' subjective quality of life Cook 2012;Cook and Noblet 2012). This study was conducted in the period immediately following the implementation of Welfare to Work, and focused on those single parents 'to which welfare to work requirements applied which required them to participate in the most recent welfare to work reform activities' (Cook 2012, 147).…”

“…Individual scores were multiplied by 10, before the seven domain scores excluding the global evaluation of life as a whole were then summed and averaged to provide a mean score of subjective wellbeing (Cook et al 2009, 481). 9 Job satisfaction was measured using items from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia broader population of employed Australian women (Cook and Noblet 2012). Specifically, single mothers' overall average job satisfaction was 6.3 on an 11-point scale compared to an average of 7.7 for all employed Australian women (Cook and Noblet 2012, 210), and the largest difference was in the domain of job security (5.19 versus 8.0) (Cook and Noblet 2012, 211).…”