Union membership and job satisfaction over the life course

Blanchflower, D. G. and Bryson, A. (2022) Union membership and job satisfaction over the life course. Industrial Relations Journal, 53(5), pp. 411-429. (doi: 10.1111/irj.12379)

Abstract

We examine the relationship between union membership and job satisfaction over the life-course using data from the National Child Development Study (NCDS) tracking all those born in Great Britain in a single week in March in 1958 through to age 55 (2013). We find there is a significant negative correlation between union membership and job satisfaction that is apparent across the life-course. Lagged union membership status going back many years is negatively correlated with current job satisfaction, though its effects become statistically non-significant when conditioning on current union membership status. These results provide a different perspective to longitudinal studies showing short-term positive responses to switches in membership status. They are consistent with earlier work showing that this cohort of workers, and others before them, have persistently lower job satisfaction as union members compared to their non-union counterparts.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: Alex Bryson would like to thank the Norwegian Research Council (grant no. 301280/H20) for financial support.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Blanchflower, Professor David
• Authors: Blanchflower, D. G., and Bryson, A.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Economics
• Journal Name: Industrial Relations Journal
• Publisher: Wiley
• ISSN: 0019-8692
• ISSN (Online): 1468-2338
• Published Online: 03 September 2022
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Industrial Relations Journal 53(5): 411-429
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License