COMP NEWS – A new Gallop poll indicates that U.S. workers are more satisfied with safety regulations on the job, even in the wake of rising COVID cases. However, U.S. workers’ dissatisfaction with pay and benefits remains a key issue across industries.
One year after U.S. workers indicated significantly less satisfaction with the physical safety conditions of their workplace, their satisfaction has rebounded to its pre-pandemic level. Workplace safety and relations with coworkers are the two job aspects that U.S. employees are most satisfied with, of 13 tracked by Gallup.
Seventy-two percent of Americans who work full or part time say they are “completely satisfied” with both their safety on the job and their relationships with coworkers. Meanwhile, just 32% express the same level of satisfaction with the amount of work-related stress, earning it the bottom spot on the list.
These findings, from Gallup’s Aug. 2-17 poll, mark the 22nd year of tracking workers’ satisfaction with various dimensions of their work life.
Majorities of workers are satisfied with job security, flexibility of hours, and vacation time, among other benefits. However, less than half of workers are completely satisfied with their pay and health benefits.
Aside from the change in satisfaction with physical safety at work, employees’ satisfaction levels have not changed significantly since last year, and the overall rank order has been generally stable over the past few years.
Majorities of workers are completely satisfied with six other job dimensions in addition to physical safety at work and relations with coworkers. These include job security (67%), flexibility of hours (65%), boss or supervisor (63%), workload (55%), amount of vacation time (52%) and recognition received for accomplishments (52%).
On the other end of the spectrum, along with work-related stress, less than half of workers are completely satisfied with the retirement plan offered by their employer (38%), the money they earn (38%), their chances for promotion (42%) and their health insurance benefits (45%). Still, taking into account the percentage of workers who say they are “somewhat satisfied,” each combined measure rises to at least 67%.
Although COVID-19 cases are much higher than they were one year ago, American workers are currently more satisfied with their physical safety while at work than they were then. This is likely because of the availability of COVID-19 vaccines. Increasing numbers of employers across the U.S. are mandating vaccines or requiring regular COVID-19 testing to ensure their employees have the safest working environment.
While U.S. workers are broadly satisfied with their workplace safety, relations with coworkers, job security, boss, flexibility in hours, workload, recognition and vacation time, there is still significant room for employers to help improve their employees’ stress levels and their pay, benefits and chances for promotion.
To read more about Gallop’s poll, click here.
For more Comp News, see our recent posts.
Comp News is brought to you by CompXL, the flexible compensation software provider that enables mid- to large-size organizations to implement competitive pay structures such as vested stock options and variable incentive pay.
