Survey report shows Americans say they feel they have greater job security at work, but more workers report being dissatisfied with how much they are paid I am doing it. New Pew Research Poll.
The survey, conducted in October and released Tuesday, found that 69 percent of employed Americans say they have job security, including 33 percent who have “a lot” of job security and 36 percent who have job security. They answered that there is “quite a lot” of stability. This top-line number is unchanged from the July 2022 survey results, when 35 percent reported a “fair amount” of security and 34 percent reported a “fair amount” of security.
Similarly, in the October 2024 survey, 17% said they had “some” job security, 8% said “a little” and 5% said they had no job security. As of July 2022, 16 percent had “some” security, 9 percent had “some” security, and 6 percent had no security at all.
However, compared to the February 2023 survey, workers report feeling less satisfied with their pay.
Currently, 30 percent of employed Americans say they are satisfied with their pay, and 30 percent say they are dissatisfied. As of February 2023, 35% said they were satisfied with their salary, and 26% said they were not satisfied. The percentage of people who answered that they were “somewhat” satisfied remained stable, rising to 41% in 2024 and 40% in 2023.
The majority of Americans who say they are dissatisfied with their pay at work say their pay has not kept up with the rising cost of living, with 80% citing that as the “main reason” for their dissatisfaction. .
Americans who are dissatisfied with their pay cite other “key reasons.” Among them, 70% said their pay was too low for the amount of work they did, and 71% said their pay was too low for the quality of their work. .
Slightly more than half of Americans, 54%, who feel underpaid say the main reason is that they don't earn enough to pay their bills.
Although the U.S. economy has improved significantly since the height of the pandemic, the impact of high prices continues. In the past two years, prices have increased It rose 5.9%, according to calculations by The Hill using Consumer Price Index (CPI) data. At the same time, the Labor Department shows that average hourly wages increased by 8.5%.
But since January 2021, prices have increased by 20.2 percent, according to calculations by The Hill, and hourly wages have increased by 18.5 percent during that period, according to Department of Labor data.
The survey surveyed 5,273 working adults in the United States and was conducted from October 7 to October 13, 2024. The margin of error is 1.7 percentage points.
