Occupational Prestige as a Factor in the Net Relationship Between Occupation and Job Satisfaction

In contrast to earlier evidence that the relationship between level of occupation and job satisfaction is positive and monotonic, analysis of a recent national survey shows that craftsmen are more job satisfied than other males in clerical, sales, and professional‐technical occupations and that this variation is independent of a number of other variables. Removal of occupational prestige modifies the occupation‐job satisfaction relationship in a manner which suggests that job satisfaction may arise more from ascribed prestige than from such job characteristics as work autonomy, authority, and income.