Many of us may remember something we learned in either introductory psychology or management classes called “the hierarchy of needs,” or Maslow’s Pyramid. Abraham Maslow (1908 – 1970) was an American psychologist who proposed that human motivation operated along a continuum of need fulfillment. Maslow’s model is frequently depicted as a pyramid, where the lower order needs must be fulfilled (at least to a minimal degree) before one advances to the higher-level needs. At the lowest end are the physical needs of basic survival–air, water, food, and shelter. Once these needs are secured, the next level is the degree to which one feels safe in maintaining them, that is, security where one does not have to live in a state of hyper-vigilance to outside threats and constant worry about tomorrow. Once these lower needs are met, one moves up to the psycho-social needs of belongingness and friendship, followed by the need for achievement and expression in which one earns respect for oneself as well as the respect of others. The highest level Maslow terms self-actualization, in which one realizes his or her highest moral, intellectual, psychological and spiritual development.
However, progress through the hierarchy is more complex and not necessary linear and sequential, and individuals may be working on several levels simultaneously. One example is someone working for a non-profit who is fully engaged with work in an organization whose mission corresponds directly with the individual’s personal values, but the pay barely covers subsistence. In this example, the job is fulfilling higher level needs but is shortchanging lower level ones. An example at the opposite end of the spectrum is the typical law associate at a large prestigious law firm, who is paid a six-figure salary but barely has time for a life outside of work, and the work itself may be little more than high-level drudgery.
The media is replete with stories about how we are now living in a so-called “knowledge economy.” The assumption is that we have moved beyond a subsistence economy and even beyond a “production” economy, where the new sources of wealth are information and the ability to manage it. It is indeed true that information plays a much greater role in our economy than it ever has in the past, however this brave new world has not necessarily resulted in a corresponding increase in human actualization.
In the rest of this article, I will examine the extent to which the modern American job market fulfills the needs of workers in a Maslow-type analysis. The four specific areas that will be examined are physical needs, security, social ties, and meaningfulness. At the end of the article, you will have the option to participate in a short (10-question) survey about whether the job market is working for you or not.
Physical Needs
Unlike some third world countries, Americans do not experience the inconvenience of stepping over homeless people and squatters begging for food as we walk down most urban streets. Many view the homeless as outliers of society—persons who have mental health issues or criminal records that prevent them from finding a job. However, a 2009 study by the National Coalition for the Homeless found that 44% of homeless are people with jobs. Another study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics finds that 3 million workers, or 3.9% of the hourly workforce, earn the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour—a salary that pays (for a 50-week, 40-hr per week job) only $14,500–before any deductions for FICA, federal and state income taxes. Is this enough to cover the basic necessities for survival? You do the math.
Low wages do not only impact the persons receiving them, but they cost all of us. The University of California Berkeley Labor Center calculates that some 56% of combined state and federal public assistance goes to working families. In essence, low wage work costs taxpayers nearly $153 billion per year, as workers and families turn to federal and state income supplement programs just to make ends meet. Although the majority of these workers are employed in fast food jobs or as home and child care workers, this group also includes some highly educated workers. The educated impoverished are comprised mainly of an increasing number of part-time adjunct college professors with post-graduate degrees, who earn $20-$25,000 per year with no benefits or security.
It is one thing to have enough for today, but do people have enough to meet their needs if something goes wrong, such as job loss, illness or accident, or even an unplanned car repair? A survey conducted by the Federal Reserve earlier this year (2016) revealed that 46% of those surveyed could not cover a $400 emergency expense, but would instead have to put in on credit, borrow from family or friends, or pay it off over time. Although the study did not specify how many of these people had jobs, based on the incomes reported, it can be inferred that most of them were employed somewhere.
Security
Job security is harder to quantify than income and cost of living. A 1997 Bureau of Labor Statistics report suggests that measures of job contingency and median job tenure can serve as proxies for job security. This does not bode well in an era of downsizing and layoffs, increasing part-time and contingent employment, increasing turnover and decreasing tenure in any one job, and longer periods of involuntary unemployment between jobs. Measurement problems are compounded by the fact that job insecurity has both an objective (a layoff or merger has been announced, or the company has declared bankruptcy) and subjective (worker’s anxiety-based anticipation of job loss and difficulties in securing comparable employment) components. A group of researchers in Europe reviewed the academic literature on job insecurity in 2006—before the Great Recession—and found that “the issue of insecure working conditions” greatly increased during the 1980s and 1990s. The authors reference stress theory and suggest that uncertainty and ambiguity about how to counteract even a perceived threat of job loss leads to increased stress.
An August 2014 Gallup survey on job security suggests that workers perceived job security mirrors job market conditions generally. Workers’ sense of security plunged following the dot com recession (2001-2002) and then again in 2007-2009. In 2014, the survey found that 58% of workers were satisfied with their job security—up from 50% during the Great Recession. The survey also found that major sources of dissatisfaction continue to be job stress, pay, and benefits like health insurance and retirement. Although the news appears to be good (at least things are improving), it still suggests that a high level of insecurity remains in the working population
Social Ties
The strength of social ties, or so-called social capital, has been found to be an important factor in physical and mental health, as well as economic well-being. Many are familiar with Robert Putnam’s 2000 bestseller Bowling Alone on the state of social capital in the United States. For many working Americans, jobs can impact social capital in both positive and negative ways. A job provides a sort of ready-made community, even if it is a somewhat artificial one. Anyone who is looking for work is almost always exhorted on the necessity of “networking.” Conversely, too much time spent at work may prevent the development of relationships outside of work, and possibly have negative impacts on relationships at home. Social capital, like financial capital and human capital, requires investment of personal resources, most specifically investments of time. However, modern post-industrial societies are characterized by a paradox of involuntary part-time and overwork: The majority of Americans work over 40 hours per week, with 21% working 50-59 hours and 18% working more than 60 hours. Putnam’s research suggests that up to 10% of decline in American social capital is due to financial anxiety and a “changing workplace,” and another 10% is due to urban sprawl and length of work commutes.
Another feature of American life that impacts the development of social capital is that we are frequent movers. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 12% of the U.S. population (or 1 in 9) moves for work every year—a rate that has remained relatively stable between 2008 and 2014. The Pew Research Center looked at American mobility patterns between 2007 and 2008—more or less in the middle of the Great Recession. The most frequent reason for a move was “job or business” at 44%, with “good place to raise children” and “family ties” coming in second and third respectively at 36% and 35%.
In a post-Great recession report, the U.S. Census examined reasons for moving based on the 2013 Current Population Survey data. In this survey, the most frequently cited reasons for moving were housing-related (48%), family-related (30.3%), and job-related (19.4%). It can be inferred from the data that there was a noticeable drop in job-related moves in a post-Great recession economy. Both studies also corroborated that job movers tend to be mostly male, college graduates or post-graduates, and higher income.
An interesting development has been in the number of people emigrating out of the United States entirely. Although Americans are least likely among citizens of other nations to leave their own country to find work, a 2014 study by the Boston Consulting Group and The Network found that 35% of Americans say they would move out of the country for a job, and this number was even higher (59%) for millennials. Sometime in 2008, the one millionth American moved to Mexico. In the past, this population consisted mainly of retirees and persons evading a troubled history, but now increasingly is comprised of workers in search of jobs that allow them to achieve a better work-life balance and raise families.
Although there seems to be no study directly on this point (at least that I have been able to locate), one can certainly speculate about how constant relocation in search of work—especially if it is now global– may leave one socially rootless. While this may be an acceptable price to pay for career advancement, what happens to the rootless individual who loses the job? The obvious antidote to finding oneself in this situation is to maintain a strong and geographically dispersed social network. But how many of the people working those 50+ hours per week have the time or the energy to do so?
Meaningfulness
The concept of meaningfulness is probably the most nebulous when applied to the world of work. It is more usually a term of religious reference and the search to find one’s “calling” in life. This concept is based on making some connection between one’s work and a higher purpose, especially activity that is beneficial to society at large. In the world of work, meaningfulness is usually discussed in terms of employee engagement. Many of us may think engagement requires either higher-level skilled work (such as medicine or law) or religious and “helping” professions, but theoretically most any job can be engaging if the job-holder has a high level of discretion (autonomy), the ability to achieve some type of mastery (agency), and a philosophical compatibility with the organizational mission.
Employee engagement has become a hot topic recently because it has been correlated with improved bottom lines. The Gallup organization has done a number of studies on employee engagement and has divided employees into “engaged,” “not engaged,” and “actively disengaged.” In the U.S., less than one third of employees are engaged, a rate that has been stubbornly persistent. Gallup suggests that employers may not be making the necessary investments to boost engagement, choosing instead to conduct a survey and then doing nothing to follow up—which only exacerbates distrust (and hence disengagement). A darker theory is that bolstering engagement often requires empowering employees, and giving up power is something that many employers simply don’t want to do.
So…is the job market working for you? If you would like to add your voice to this discussion, you may link to the survey below. There are 10 questions, which should take anywhere from 3-10 minutes (depending on length of commentary) to complete.
