By Dr. Tim Sandle
SCIENCE EDITOR
DIGITAL JOURNAL
January 19, 2026
In New York City, workers spill out onto the streets, grabbing a quick lunch amid the city's constant buzz. — © Digital Journal
New research finds that employers and policymakers should start paying attention to how workers are feeling. This is because employee happiness contains critical economic information.
To derive at this finding, researchers from the University of Georgia used an empirical model to relate job satisfaction, wages and work environment.
The neoliberal theory of work runs that if workers are paid fairly for their working conditions they will be satisfied. This is a so-termed hedonic wage model. This is something that requires ‘perfect’ job and labour market conditions and assumes workers are rational, fully informed of workplace conditions and can switch jobs freely.
Of course, this is not reality as multiple critiques of free markets and related theories of human capital have demonstrated. Often, the worst jobs are also the jobs that pay the least, and yet workers do not (often cannot) exit.
The hedonic wage model explains how wages are determined by the characteristics of jobs, where workers trade off job attributes against compensation, leading to compensating differentials for less desirable job conditions.
Taking a new approach, the study used overall gratification to understand employees and uncover the trade-offs between working conditions and pay — including under circumstances where job markets are rigid, and workers might feel “stuck” at their jobs.
The researchers assessed data pertaining to nearly 35,000 European workers across jobs and sectors in 30 countries. It was found that, on average, workers facing higher risks were paid less. This is not in line with neoliberal theory. This is partly because such theories do not adequately account for job satisfaction indicators.
What is the price of job satisfaction?
Alternatively, looking at the data from an economic perspective, the researchers considered how much money workers think is reasonable to stay in a job that is inherently unsatisfying?
Adjusted for U.S. dollars at the time of publication, the study found that on average, workers would have to be compensated with approximately $29 per hour to eliminate all the health and safety risks they perceive at work to remain satisfied with their position. The research also found that avoiding days off due to work accidents had an estimated price tag of $362 per year, and improved workplace conditions had a value of more than $12,000 per year.
Implications
The study shows that workplace satisfaction is much more important than many theoretical models (and management practice) accounts for. Higher pay and a safer work environment have an immense impact on worker contentment. Consequently, happier workers can mean plenty of good things for the business itself, including productivity.
Example of appreciation
An example of a different dynamic is for employees to be appreciated by colleagues, a factor that can help employees cope with negative experiences at work. Research has shown that employees experience ’embitterment’ — an emotional response to perceived workplace injustice — on days when they are assigned more unreasonable tasks than usual. This negative emotion not only affects their work but also spills over into their personal lives, leading to an increase in rumination, the repetitive dwelling on negative feelings and their causes. This can result in difficulty detaching from work, ultimately preventing recovery from job-related stress.
New paradigm
The researchers point out that asking workers in general about how they feel and gathering subjective well-being data contains a lot of important economic information and this approach has tended to be ignored by economists.
The research appears in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. The research paper is titled “Measuring job risks when hedonic wage models do not do the job.”
January 19, 2026
In New York City, workers spill out onto the streets, grabbing a quick lunch amid the city's constant buzz. — © Digital Journal
New research finds that employers and policymakers should start paying attention to how workers are feeling. This is because employee happiness contains critical economic information.
To derive at this finding, researchers from the University of Georgia used an empirical model to relate job satisfaction, wages and work environment.
The neoliberal theory of work runs that if workers are paid fairly for their working conditions they will be satisfied. This is a so-termed hedonic wage model. This is something that requires ‘perfect’ job and labour market conditions and assumes workers are rational, fully informed of workplace conditions and can switch jobs freely.
Of course, this is not reality as multiple critiques of free markets and related theories of human capital have demonstrated. Often, the worst jobs are also the jobs that pay the least, and yet workers do not (often cannot) exit.
The hedonic wage model explains how wages are determined by the characteristics of jobs, where workers trade off job attributes against compensation, leading to compensating differentials for less desirable job conditions.
Taking a new approach, the study used overall gratification to understand employees and uncover the trade-offs between working conditions and pay — including under circumstances where job markets are rigid, and workers might feel “stuck” at their jobs.
The researchers assessed data pertaining to nearly 35,000 European workers across jobs and sectors in 30 countries. It was found that, on average, workers facing higher risks were paid less. This is not in line with neoliberal theory. This is partly because such theories do not adequately account for job satisfaction indicators.
What is the price of job satisfaction?
Alternatively, looking at the data from an economic perspective, the researchers considered how much money workers think is reasonable to stay in a job that is inherently unsatisfying?
Adjusted for U.S. dollars at the time of publication, the study found that on average, workers would have to be compensated with approximately $29 per hour to eliminate all the health and safety risks they perceive at work to remain satisfied with their position. The research also found that avoiding days off due to work accidents had an estimated price tag of $362 per year, and improved workplace conditions had a value of more than $12,000 per year.
Implications
The study shows that workplace satisfaction is much more important than many theoretical models (and management practice) accounts for. Higher pay and a safer work environment have an immense impact on worker contentment. Consequently, happier workers can mean plenty of good things for the business itself, including productivity.
Example of appreciation
An example of a different dynamic is for employees to be appreciated by colleagues, a factor that can help employees cope with negative experiences at work. Research has shown that employees experience ’embitterment’ — an emotional response to perceived workplace injustice — on days when they are assigned more unreasonable tasks than usual. This negative emotion not only affects their work but also spills over into their personal lives, leading to an increase in rumination, the repetitive dwelling on negative feelings and their causes. This can result in difficulty detaching from work, ultimately preventing recovery from job-related stress.
New paradigm
The researchers point out that asking workers in general about how they feel and gathering subjective well-being data contains a lot of important economic information and this approach has tended to be ignored by economists.
The research appears in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. The research paper is titled “Measuring job risks when hedonic wage models do not do the job.”
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