Differences in the job satisfaction of high‐paid and low‐paid workers across Europe

Abstract. Data from six waves of the European Community Household Panel (1996–2001) in 11 countries suggest that low‐paid employees are significantly less satisfied with their job than the high‐paid in southern Europe, but not in the northern countries. Proxying job satisfaction for job quality, the authors show that while low‐paid employment does not necessarily mean low‐quality employment, workers in some countries suffer the double penalty of low pay and low job quality. Such dualism across European labour markets, they argue, reflects different country‐level approaches to the trade‐off between flexibility and security, calling for a policy focus on the latter to enhance job quality.