Job satisfaction in simplest terms is how content an employee is with his job. It consists of the emotional attachment/detachment one has with the job as well as the extent of satisfaction with the input and outputs from the job, i.e., work, pay, benefits, commuting time, experience gained, etc. Hence, it is a general attitude towards one’s job, the differences between the amount of reward workers receive and the amount they believe they should receive. A workers attitude is directly linked to job satisfaction. The aim of this study is to inquire into various parameters affecting job satisfaction (Varkkey & Korde, 2013).

Data collection by Paycheck India:

This article uses survey data of individuals from India. The data has been collected from the continuous and voluntary Paycheck India web survey (www.paycheck.in) that is posted in English and Hindi. The survey has detailed questions about earnings, benefits, working conditions and employment contracts, as well as questions about education, occupation, industry and household characteristics (WageIndicator, 2013). More importantly, the survey includes questions inquiring about the level of satisfaction in different domains such as life, job and the combination of family and work. A total of 27,315 people (22,813 males and 4,484 females) from across India responded by completing the online questionnaire over four years 2009-12(Varkkey & Korde, 2013).

Analysis of Satisfaction with Job:

(1)The Overall Trend:

In this section we will focus on the overall trend portrait by the survey. This will help us understand the general opinion of respondents regarding Job Satisfaction.

From Figure 1 we infer that the respondents are fairly satisfied with their jobs. Satisfaction with their superiors at work seems to be very high among respondents, the same goes for satisfaction with commuting time, work &family and job security. The only criteria where the respondents were highly dissatisfied was the satisfaction with pay, 44% of the respondents feel that they are not paid appropriately for their work.  

(2)Yearly trend:

After assessing the overall trend we can go into further detail by looking into yearly trends of satisfaction and dissatisfaction of the respondents.

From Figure 2 we can observe that the satisfaction level of the respondents have a similar trend from the years 2011&2012. Satisfaction with superiors at work seem to be highest in all years surveyed. Satisfaction with Job and Combination of Work & family show a rather constant trend over the years with hardly any change. But in the year 2013 we see that many respondents level of satisfaction with their contract and welfare provisions seems to have declined.

From figure3 we can infer that from the years 2011 & 2012, satisfaction with Pay seems to be the only criteria where the respondents are highly dissatisfied. Whereas their dissatisfaction levels with job, Employment Contract, work & family, relationship with superiors and Welfare Provisions seem to be similar through these two years. But in the year 2013 we can observe a rise in the dissatisfaction levels of Employment Contract and Welfare Provisions. We see that the respondents are more dissatisfied with their Employment contracts and Welfare Provisions than their Pay.

(3)Gender Segregation:

After assessing the overall trend and the yearly trends of the respondents, we will take a more detailed look by segregating the data gender wise. 

Therefore when we look at the above table we infer that male respondents seem to be more satisfied when compared to female respondents. Satisfaction with commuting time and combination of work and family seem to be the only two areas where the female respondents are more satisfied.  

Figure 5 shows us a clear trend where both the male and female respondents are highly dissatisfied with their pay. 50% of female respondents show that they are highly dissatisfied with their pay.[1]

(4)The Neutral Zone Analysis: 

In this section we will take the parameter “satisfaction with employment contract” and try to assess the neutral zone. From 2009 we see that there have been significant number of people who have a neutralopinion (32% male & 33% female) regarding their satisfaction with employment contracts. But as the years progress we see that people have changed their stance.

From the above figure we can see the yearly satisfaction level of male and female respondents with their employment contracts. The figure shows us that the neutral zone has been thinning out as the years have progressed for both male and female respondents. In 2013 we observe that the proportion of female respondents that were ether satisfied or neutral in 2012 have shifted into the dissatisfaction zone, increasing the count of dissatisfied respondents to 68% and thinning out the neutral zone to only 9%. A similar trend is also seen with male respondents, we infer that the dissatisfaction count in 2013 is 41% compared to last year’s count of 31%, we also see that the neutral zone is cut down from 23% in 2012 to 20% in 2013. This shows us that over the years people have become highly dissatisfied with their employment contracts. 

Conclusion:

This study on job satisfaction has produced interesting results and insights. This topic has always been discussed formally or informally in many research papers but the lack of availability of data had always created issues. But the information collected by WageIndicator foundation through the job satisfaction survey has certainly provided us with better insights. For more information and detailed analysis of the job satisfaction survey, one can refer the forthcoming Report on “Job Satisfaction in India” 2013 .Which shall be available shortly in the publications sections of the WageIndicator & Paycheck India Websites.

 [1] For further information as to why female respondents are highly dissatisfied one can refer the Paycheck India Report on Gender Pay Gap in the Formal Sector.

Read Full Report :Exploring Job Satisfaction in India: Evidence from Paycheck India Survey

• Korde, B. V. (2012). Gender Pay Gap in the Formal Sector. WageIndicator.
• WageIndicator. (2013). WageIndicator Foundation. Retrieved September 2013, from