Labor Day: Workers at their workplaces

It's Labor Day weekend, a time when politicians and pollsters keep an eye on the well-being of America's workers. Survey-based metrics in this area are valuable not only for assessing current attitudes, but also because they tell us about workers' priorities. Fortunately, two polls, one from Gallup and one from the Conference Board, provide long-term trends. Gallup has been asking about workers' attitudes annually since 1999 and has scattered previous results before. The Conference Board has been doing so for nearly four decades.

Gallup's annual survey covers more than a dozen areas. The Conference Board asks about 26 specific aspects of work and, like Gallup, asks a question about overall job satisfaction. Although they use different measures, their questions convey similar overall impressions. Most American employees are very satisfied with their work, their workplace, their colleagues and even their bosses. Salary and benefits, on the other hand, are not quite as highly valued.

In the 2023 Gallup poll, 91% of working adults were completely (50%) or somewhat satisfied (41%) with their jobs. Only 8% were somewhat or completely dissatisfied. In the 2023 Conference Board poll, 63% said they were satisfied with their jobs overall, the highest response in the 37-year series, although specific job characteristics declined slightly in many areas. In the 2023 Pew assessment, 14% were extremely satisfied with their jobs, 37% very satisfied, 37% somewhat satisfied, 9% not too satisfied, and 3% not at all satisfied. The low levels of dissatisfaction in these surveys is notable.

What can we learn from the survey questions about specific job characteristics?

*Workers are most satisfied with their work culture—for example, relationships with coworkers. In fact, workers are generally satisfied with their bosses or supervisors. A separate Pew survey found that 54% of workers felt their companies paid about the right amount of attention to increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion in their workplaces, 14% too little, and 15% too much. Other surveys show that DEI efforts rank low on the list of what employees want for their own workplace. Pay, benefits, and flexibility are more important.

*Satisfaction with salary and benefits always lags behind satisfaction with the work environment. Today, negative assessments of the economy as a whole can depress attitudes toward some job characteristics. Yet in the most recent Gallup poll, only 13% were very dissatisfied with their salary.

*Working Americans are somewhat confident about their job security. These numbers hit a low during the Great Recession but have been more positive since then.

*People are generally satisfied with the security of their jobs. Concerns about safety increased during the pandemic, but 50 or 60 years ago, workers were much more concerned about safety.

* Flexibility is very important to employees. In Gallup's latest survey, 88% were satisfied with the flexibility of their work schedules. Gallup added a new category in 2022, and two-thirds were satisfied with their ability to work remotely. In 2023, that response was 58%.

*In 2010, Gallup reported that stress at work was the most common complaint among employees. This poll and others show that it doesn't seem to be as big a problem today.

*As for demographic differences, women are generally less satisfied with their jobs than men. The polls suggest several possible reasons. In the Pew survey, more women than men say they experience workplace discrimination, although this response is relatively low. Most women say they make as much as men at their jobs, but national headlines about the pay gap likely color their opinions of women's job experiences nationally. It's also possible that some women would rather not work. In the 2019 Gallup poll, 56% of women say they would prefer to work outside the home. A notable 39% prefer to stay home and take care of home and family.

*Young people tend to be less satisfied with their job situation than older workers, but they are often more optimistic about their prospects. This depends on what stage of their life they are in.

So workers are pretty happy with their jobs these days. Of course, it's important for companies to know the strengths and weaknesses of their own workplaces. Focusing on improvements can help with employee retention and better business results. But it's also important to put individual company studies into the context of the entire workforce. And here, the news is mostly good. Enjoy Labor Day.