Are nurses less satisfied than other workers?

Are nurses less satisfied than other workers? In this study comparing job satisfaction of baccalaureate nurses with elementary teachers and accountants, the three groups rated many aspects of their jobs similarly. Nurses were not comparatively or pervasively less satisfied with their jobs than these other professionals except in the areas of salary, chance for administrative participation, and job security.     

You can’t always get what you want: gender differences in job satisfaction of university graduates

Previous literature stressed on the gender differences in job satisfaction and the factors influencing the job satisfaction of men and women. Two rationales are usually provided for the finding that women tend to be relatively more satisfied with their jobs than men although disadvantaged in labour markets: first, women may have relatively lower expectations of career and income, and second, they may attach relatively less importance to extrinsic rewards than men. In order to analyse whether substantial gender differences exist already at the beginning of the career, we employ information of over 20 000 graduates collected through a large-scale survey of German university graduates who recently entered the labour market. We find that the job satisfaction of female graduates is on average slightly lower than the job satisfaction of male graduates, but our results do not point to substantial gender differences. In our sample of highly qualified individuals, men and women are very similar in what they want from their jobs and also in their perceptions of what they get. While our results point to substantial similarity of men and women in the early career stage, gender differences may emerge at later stages of the career life cycle.     

Balance of payments,the Harrod foreign trade multiplier and economic growth: the European and North American experience, 1970–85

This paper examines the assoication between Canadian unions and their member' attitudes. Data on job satisfaction indicate that unionized workers in Canada are less happy with the quality of their jobs than non-union workers. The former, however, are more satisfied with their financial compensation and job security than non-members.     

Non-pecuniary Advantages Versus Pecuniary Disadvantages; Job Satisfaction Among Male And Female Academics In Scottish Universities

This paper considers job satisfaction in the academic labour market drawing upon a particularly detailed data set of 900 academics from five traditional Scottish Universities. Recent studies have revealed that in the labour force as a whole women generally express themselves as more satisfied with their jobs than men. Our results show that reports of overall job satisfaction do not vary widely by gender. This result is explained through the nature of our dataset, limited as it is to a highly educated workforce, in which female workers are likely to have job expectations comparable to their male counterparts. Ordered probit analysis is used to analyse the determinants of an academic's overall satisfaction at work as well as satisfaction with promotion prospects, job security and salary. Comparison salary is found to be an important influence on academics' overall job satisfaction although evidence suggests that academics place a lower emphasis on pecuniary relative to non pecuniary aspects of work than other sectors of the workforce.     

Job satisfaction and disability: lower expectations about jobs or a matter of health?

This article focuses on the analysis of the reported differentials of job satisfaction for disabled and non-disabled individuals. Using the Spanish data of the European Community Household Panel during the period 1995–2001, we estimate a job satisfaction equation for each group and evaluate job satisfaction differentials through the Oaxaca-Blinder methodology. The results show that disabled individuals are more likely to be more satisfied in their jobs than non-disabled ones, but only after controlling for other variables. Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition shows the greater importance of the returns in job satisfaction for disabled people, which is supported by explanations based on the lower expectations about jobs of disadvantaged groups.      

CONFRONTING OBJECTIONS TO PERFORMANCE PAY: THE IMPACT OF INDIVIDUAL AND GAIN-SHARING INCENTIVES ON JOB SATISFACTION

The increasing use of incentive pay schemes in recent years has raised concerns about their potential detrimental effect on intrinsic job satisfaction (JS), job security and employee morale. This study explores the impact of pay incentives on the overall JS of workers in the United Kingdom and their satisfaction with various facets of jobs. Using data from eight waves (1998–2005) of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and a uniquely designed well-being dataset (EPICURUS), a significant positive impact on JS is only found for those receiving fixed-period bonuses. These conclusions are robust to unobserved heterogeneity, and are shown to depend on a number of job-quality characteristics that have not been controlled for in previous studies.     

Work satisfaction among California registered nurses: a longitudinal comparative analysis

California's minimum nurse-to-patient staffing ratio law, the nation's first, was implemented in 2004. This study had two aims: (a) to evaluate the effect of the nurse-to-patient ratios law on nurse job satisfaction in order to advance the debate over the merits of nurse staffing law, and (b) to compare California nurses who were satisfied against those who were not, in order to facilitate the development targeted retention interventions based on empirical evidence. The sample's overall job satisfaction increased significantly as the years passed, suggesting the nurse-to-patient ratios law was associated with improvements in nurse satisfaction. Satisfied RNs were more likely to have a balanced and financially secure life that included a partner, children living at home, higher hourly wages, and higher income from sources other than a nursing job. Nurses working in direct patient care positions remained dissatisfied in larger proportions than those working in other types of positions, even after the nurse-to-patient ratios were implemented. More nurses are satisfied today than before the ratios; nevertheless, far too many nurses (18.5%) have job satisfaction scores that are neutral or worse.     

Happily Ever After? A Study of Job Satisfaction in Australia

The present paper investigates issues of job satisfaction and gender. In particular, the finding that women are significantly happier in work than their male counterparts is examined. To shed light on this issue, smaller subgroups of the total sample are analysed and more subjective variables (in addition to more traditional objective variables) are incorporated. It is found that differences in reported job satisfaction are more pronounced when looking at individuals with lower levels of education in lower skilled jobs. The determinants of job satisfaction for men and women in this group are significantly different; this was not found to be the case when looking at higher skilled, higher educated individuals. Women in this latter group exhibit similar (i.e. lower) levels of satisfaction to their male counterparts. It is conjectured that this result is due to differences in expectations of work among men and women and also among women themselves.     

Teacher moonlighting: evidence from the US Current Population Survey

This article reports new evidence on teacher moonlighting from the US Current Population Survey. I investigate the determinants of teacher moonlighting and examine the effect that the teacher moonlighting has on the number of hours teachers spend on their primary job. I find that male teachers and teachers with advanced degrees are more likely to moonlight, but teacher pay appears to have little or no effect on the propensity to moonlight. I also find that holding a second job reduces the amount of time teachers spend on their primary jobs by about 1?h per week. Thus, teacher moonlighting may have harmful effects on education, though the effect on hours worked is neither trivial nor especially large.     

How important is the type of working contract for job satisfaction of agency workers?

Previous research finds that agency workers are less satisfied with their job than regular workers. This paper analyzes whether this difference can be explained by the duration of the working contract agency workers are employed on. The analysis leads to three results. First, agency workers’ contract type does not explain their lower job satisfaction. Second, agency workers on permanent contracts are significantly less satisfied with their job than regular workers on the same contract. Third, agency workers on fixed-term contracts do not differ in job satisfaction from regular workers on both fixed-term and permanent contracts. The difference in job satisfaction between permanently employed agency and regular workers can partly be explained by changes in the reference point. Overall, the results, however, lend support to the conclusion that agency workers on fixed-term contracts regard their employment as stepping stone while those on permanent contracts appear to be trapped in this type of employment.     

Compensating wage differences

The paper develops a model of the allocation of workers to jobs based on individual's preferences for job satisfaction vs earnings. Given the distribution of levels of job satisfaction and productivities, it is possible to solve explicitly for wages as a function of job satisfaction. More productive individuals will take more (less) satisfying jobs whenever the elasticity of substitution between job satisfaction and earnings is less (greater) than one. The paper also discusses the effects of inequality on earnings of high and low productivity workers and the effects of compensating wage differences on the distribution of earnings.     

Where to go? Workers' reasons to quit and intra- vs. interindustry job mobility

We show that workers' reasons for quitting their job affect their decision to stay in or leave their industry, using survey data among public sector employees in the Netherlands. Workers quitting for e.g. pay, work pressure, or job duties move relatively often to another industry, in contrast to workers quitting for commuting time or the atmosphere at work. This suggests that workers use their experience in the initial job to update their expectations on other jobs in the industry, as the first set of job aspects is more likely to be related among jobs within an industry than the latter. Furthermore, it is shown that workers' reasons to quit fully explain the differences in wage growth between intra- and interindustry job movers. Lastly, we find that workers who quit for pay or management often leave the public sector altogether.     

Job satisfaction and co-worker pay in Canadian firms

One reason to be concerned about income inequality is the idea that people care about not only their own absolute income but also their income relative to various reference groups (co-workers, friends, neighbours, relatives, etc.). We use Canadian linked employer–employee data to estimate the casual effect of co-worker pay on a worker's reported job and pay satisfaction. Since worker satisfaction can affect the worker's productivity, organizational commitment, turnover, creativity and innovation as well as the firm's productivity and profitability, this is an issue that requires more attention and careful examination. In models that control for a rich set of workplace characteristics, we find that co-worker pay has a large positive and significant effect on both pay and job satisfaction. In our preferred models with establishment-level fixed effects, the effect of co-worker pay on pay satisfaction is half as large and the effect on job satisfaction completely disappears, suggesting that part (all) of what previous studies attribute to the effect of co-worker pay on worker pay (job) satisfaction is driven by unobserved heterogeneity across firms or establishments. Our results also suggest that the effect of co-worker pay on worker satisfaction is much stronger for workers who leave their job during the following year. Finally, we find that while co-worker pay has a positive effect on pay satisfaction among Canadian-born whites, it has a negative effect among immigrants and Canadian-born visible minorities.     

高校教师工作满意度的调查研究

文章运用问卷法和访谈法对高校教师工作满意度进行了调查研究。调查得出：高校教师工作满意度的总体状况较好：不同职称、性别、学科的高校教师的工作满意度有显著性差异;不同教龄、学历的教师在工作满意度上无显著性差异。根据调查结果,提出建议来提高高校教师的工作满意度。     

The satisfaction of university students in Spain: differences by field of study

This article analyses the factors associated with student satisfaction in a sample of undergraduate students from the University of Zaragoza (Spain). In addition to considering socio-demographic characteristics, we also examine factors related to expectations and motivations. Using data from a survey carried out during the academic year 2011/12, we show that the level of satisfaction of the students varies according to their field of study, finding that students in Engineering and Science are comparatively less satisfied than those in other disciplines. Also, expectations about whether having a university degree will be enough to obtain a job are associated with their level of satisfaction. Moreover, alcohol consumption is positively associated with their level of satisfaction. Analysing the correlates of student satisfaction is important to understand student retention and persistence.     

The value of doing what you like: Evidence from the self-employed in 23 countries

The self-employed are substantially more satisfied with their work than employed persons. We document this relationship for 23 countries and show that the higher job satisfaction can mainly be attributed to the more interesting jobs and to the greater autonomy that self-employed persons enjoy. ‘Doing what you like to do’ seems to provide non-pecuniary benefits from work suggesting the existence of procedural utility: interesting work and autonomy are valued beyond material outcomes as good procedural work characteristics. The results hold for western European, North American and eastern European countries, but largely also for countries with a non-western cultural background.     

Do unfair perceived own pay and top managers’ pay erode satisfaction with democracy?

Many people are relatively unsatisfied with the democratic system as it currently exists. In this empirical research note, the authors present evidence that German workers, who perceive their own pay or top managers’ pay as unfair, are on average significantly less happy with the democracy in Germany. Thus, fairness perceptions in the labour market and of income inequality seem to have spillover effects on the overall satisfaction with the democratic system.     

Government spending and economic growth: the G-7 experience

Using ordered probit estimation technique this paper examines the job satisfaction of recent UK graduates. Focussing primarily on explaining job satisfaction in terms of individuals matching to jobs, with the match depending on reservation returns, information sets and job offer rates. Only limited support can be found for the argument that job matching explains higher job satisfaction. In addition, stylizing graduates as a peer group, who form satisfaction levels based on their rankings relative to each other we examine whether or not education quality, which raises peer group status and increases the job offer rate, is systematically related to job satisfaction. The results broadly support the hypothesis that job satisfaction is neutral across graduates of different education qualities. However, our specification tests indicate that ordered probit estimation may not be fully appropriate for identifying the characteristics of those with high job satisfaction.     

Network effects on labor contracts of internal migrants in China: a spatial autoregressive model

This paper studies the fact that 37% of the internal migrants in China do not sign a labor contract with their employers, as revealed in a nationwide survey. These contract-free jobs pay lower hourly wages, require longer weekly work hours, and provide less insurance or on-the-job training than regular jobs with contracts. We find that the co-villager networks play an important role in a migrant’s decision on whether to accept such insecure and irregular jobs. By employing a comprehensive nationwide survey in 2011 in the spatial autoregressive logit model, we show that the common behavior of not signing contracts in the co-villager network increases the probability that a migrant accepts a contract-free job. We provide three possible explanations on how networks influence migrants’ contract decisions: job referral mechanism, limited information on contract benefits, and the “mini-labor union” formed among co-villagers, which substitutes for a formal contract. In the subsample analysis, we also find that the effects are larger for migrants whose jobs were introduced by their co-villagers, male migrants, migrants with rural Hukou, short-term migrants, and less educated migrants. The heterogeneous effects for migrants of different employer types, industries, and home provinces provide policy implications.     

Duration of disability,job mismatch and employment outcomes

Workers with disabilities have functional limitations that affect their productivity in some, but not necessarily all, jobs. Workers who find a job that is a good match for their functional limitations (i.e. a job where their limitations have little or no impact on important job functions) should expect better employment outcomes (e.g. higher wages, longer job tenure) than workers with similar disabilities who are mismatched in their jobs. Merging data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation with O*Net data on job demands, we construct two continuous measures of job mismatch for workers with physical disabilities. We then extend the literature on disability and employment by exploring relationships between duration of disability, job mismatch, wages and hours worked. The results indicate that workers with long durations of disability are employed in jobs that are a better match to their physical limitations than are similar workers with shorter durations of disability. And, workers who are mismatched earn lower wages and work fewer hours than their counterparts whose jobs are a better match. Overall, the findings suggest that disability employment policies should include systematic efforts to help workers with disabilities find good job matches.