Abstract
Previous research has established that low-wage earners have on average lower job satisfaction. However, several studies have found personal characteristics, such as gender, age and educational level, moderate this negative impact. This article demonstrates additional factors at the household level, which have not yet been empirically investigated, and which may exacerbate gender differences. The authors analyse the job satisfaction of low-wage earners depending on the contribution of individual earnings to the household income and on household deprivation using the 2013 special wave of the EU-SILC for 18 European countries. The study finds that single earners in low-wage employment report lower job satisfaction whereas low-wage employment does not seem to make a difference for secondary earners. Furthermore, low-wage earners’ job satisfaction is linked with the ability of their household to make ends meet.
Highlights
Low-wage employment is a growing segment of most labour markets in the European Union (EU Commission, 2017)
We introduced interaction terms between on the one hand low-wage employment, and on the other hand household poverty and earner positions, that allowed for more nuanced understanding of job satisfaction in specific household contexts
Our findings show that the household context is an important factor for job satisfaction that has scarcely been considered in research on job satisfaction
Summary
Low-wage employment is a growing segment of most labour markets in the European Union (EU Commission, 2017). Regarding low-wage workers, Sardadvar et al (2017) found four dispositional aspects that can buffer job satisfaction despite the low financial compensation: a ‘better than nothing’ pattern (lack of alternatives due to low education, skills recognition or stereotypes), a prior bad work experience, a comparison of their current level of income to the level they would have in their country of origin, and a ‘together we get by’ pattern (low wages may be compensated by other household members’ income) This implies that low remuneration may not be associated with a lower satisfaction if pooling and sharing of resources within a household provide workers with enough resources. We distinguished various household types: singles, two adults (or more) without children, single-parent households and households with at least two adults and children
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