The Education-Job Satisfaction Paradox in the Public Sector

Abstract

We compare the self-reported satisfaction of workers, employed in the private and the public sectors across European countries, with their working conditions and pay and have reached a controversial conclusion. Although we have found there are more educated workers in the public sector than in the private sector, higher-educated workers report lower levels of satisfaction with their working conditions and income when employed in the public sector, which was the opposite for less educated workers employed in this same sector. In contrast, we found a positive association between education and job satisfaction for workers employed in the private sector.