Ageing and disability: Job satisfaction differentials across Europe

This article analyses the levels of job satisfaction reported by older workers (aged 50–64) with and without disabilities at a European level. Using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (2004 and 2007), we estimate job satisfaction equations for non-disabled, non-limited disabled and limited disabled workers, and decompose the observed job satisfaction gap by using the widely-used Oaxaca–Blinder methodology. The results show that after controlling for some variables, older workers with disabilities who are limited in their daily activities are less likely to be satisfied with their jobs as compared to their non-disabled counterparts. However, after estimating separate models for each group and doing the Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition, we found that older workers with limiting disabilities have greater returns in terms of job satisfaction from their job characteristics (such as wages, tenure and working in the private sector) as compared to non-disabled individuals. This finding supports the hypothesis of lower expectations about jobs of disadvantaged groups (e.g. limited disabled population) and has important public policy implications.

Research highlights►We study job satisfaction reported by older workers by disability status in Europe. ►We estimate job satisfaction equations and decompose gap using Oaxaca-Blinder method. ►Limited disabled workers enjoy greater returns from job characteristics. ►Lower expectation hypothesis about jobs is supported by the results.