Do Job Disamenities Raise Wages or Ruin Job Satisfaction?

Working Papers 203 Petri Böckerman, Pekka Ilmakunnas

This study investigates the role of adverse working conditions in the determination of individual wages and overall job satisfaction in the Finnish labour market. The potential influence of adverse working conditions on self-reported fairness of pay at the workplace is considered as an alternative, indirect measure of job satisfaction. The results show that working conditions have a very minor role in the determination of individual wages in the Finnish labour market. In contrast, adverse working conditions substantially increase the level of job dissatisfaction and the perception of unfairness of pay at the workplace.

JEL Codes: J28, J31

Key words: compensating wage differentials, job satisfaction, working conditions