仕事満足度のパラドックスに関する実証分析―女性のライフステージの変化に注目して―

抄録

It is known that women are just as satisfied with their jobs as men, despite having lower salaries and less authority than men, but previous research has been inconsistent about its existence and reasons. This study used an original questionnaire survey conducted in 2022 to analyze whether this paradox exists and, if so, the paradox is caused by changes in womenʼs life stages. Using OLS，the result showed that the female dummy variable remained significant even after adjusting for objective and subjective factors, indicating that a gender gap in job satisfaction exists. However, since this difference disappeared in the group of those without a spouse or not living with a cohabitant, and those without children, it can be said that changes in life stage are the cause of the job satisfaction gap. Furthermore, for the female sample only, we analyzed the difference in job satisfaction between one living with a spouse or not and one has children or not. When the average treatment effect was calculated using propensity scores, a significant difference was confirmed when only objective variables were controlled, but the difference disappeared when subjective factors were controlled. Furthermore, the results of the logit model analysis to calculate propensity scores indicated the possibility of self-selection, in that women choose workplaces that offer higher job satisfaction when their life stages have changed.