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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Should the government pay more to public sector employees? Impact of subjective, stereotypicalwage and core self-evaluations on job satisfaction and wellbeing in public and private sector workers

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description

There are many stereotypes about work in public sector. It is supposedly more stable, less hectic but in the same time offers smaller wages in comparison to a work in private sector. But does it provide more satisfaction to employees? The current study compares work satisfaction (Warr, Cook, & Wall, 1979) and subjective Well-being (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985) as dependent on subjective and objective wage evaluations (Brown, Gardner, Oswald, & Qian, 2008; Walczak, 2017) and Core Self-Evaluations (Judge, Locke, & Durham, 1997; Walczak & Derbis, 2015). On a sample of N=625 employees (of which 18%; n=118 were employed in public sector) an impact of subjective (rather than objective) wages on work satisfaction is shown. This effect spills over on the life satisfaction of private sector’s employees, but doesn’t impact the life satisfaction of public sector’s workers. The results are discussed in the perspective of public spending on government worker’s wages.