It’s not all about the money: Pioneering study reveals the best and worst jobs in the UK.work and career

If you’re looking for happiness, try being a captain or tiling walls for a living. However, choosing to become a judge, residence manager, or theme park attendant, prepare for a certain amount of misery.

Groundbreaking study of UK employees’ ‘full income’ that seeks to explain happiness and cash earnings finds jobs where working day realities undermine pay benefits and jobs that offer maximum rewards on top of pay The job has become clear.

A study by eminent researchers from the London and Paris Schools of Economics found that the best jobs are characterized by autonomy and find satisfaction in completing tasks, while the worst jobs Customer service, administrator or welfare personnel.

And when well-being is taken into account, income inequality in the UK, already one of the worst in Western Europe, is a third higher than previously thought, creating a hidden ‘real income’ gap. claims to be

“Women and minorities are the worst sufferers from this widening inequality, and white men tend to be the winners,” said Andrew Clarke, professor at the Paris School of Economics.

The study was conducted by Maria Kotfan and Workers, pioneers of ‘happiness economics’ and co-editors of the World Happiness Report, which ranks the UK as the 24th happiest country in terms of average life satisfaction. It was co-authored by Professor Richard Layard, an associate of

Scholars who monitor well-being in Europe and the United States are increasingly concerned that traditional economic measures such as gross domestic product (GDP) underestimate the extent of social division, which threatens political stability. I am strengthening. They noted a surge in anti-government protests in recent years in the UK, US, France, Italy and Spain, and analyzes show that voter sentiment about income is more likely to favor Brexit than actual income. It has been shown to be a much better predictor of whether to vote or to vote against.

Topping the “full earnings” chart are the chief executive officer and elected representatives such as members of parliament. Construction and building supervisors, plasterers, floorers, tilers and decorators also move closer to the top as they report life satisfaction despite lower cash income. Pilots, flight engineers, marine and hovercraft officers join sports coaches and fitness instructors when their benefits are considered.

Jobs where lack of happiness yields a full income include call center workers, lawyers, IT support workers, local government administrators and hospital porters, kitchen assistants, bar staff, wait staff, and theme park attendants. included.

“Occupation is one of the most important decisions individuals make,” the study concludes.

Clark said workers with autonomy, managerial, skill acquisition, or public service jobs tend to earn higher full earnings.

“Working in the health and education field is kind of rewarding in terms of doing good,” he said. “Sales and customer service sucks. There must be little intrinsic reward for selling things.

The study used 2014-2018 ONS annual census data on full-time employees aged 18-65, a sample of 210,000 people. These people were asked to rate their ‘life satisfaction’ on a scale of 0 to 10, ranging from ‘not at all satisfied’ to ‘completely satisfied’. Earnings were measured as actual hourly wages, and each person was given her one of 90 different occupational categories.

“Some low-wage occupations, such as customer service, sales clerks, and low-skilled workers, have the worst non-monetary aspects, resulting in lower outright earnings than they actually earn,” the researchers found. did. “Some basic construction workers and agricultural workers can earn higher overall incomes when amenity values ​​are taken into account.” This latter finding highlights the benefits of working outdoors. may be suggesting.

Research suggests that satisfaction can also come from seeing a job completed. Their building site colleagues, steel builders, bricklayers and carpenters had low complete incomes. They also suggest negative effects of primarily reactive jobs, such as call center operators and kitchen porters.

Those with a degree had higher total earnings than those with only A-level, GCSE, or lower qualifications. Average life satisfaction also reflects less variability among the more educated and greater inequality in happiness among the less educated.

Ways to reduce inequality on the coin include taxation and raising minimum wages, but stronger trade unions could help broader welfare if successful in improving broader working conditions. said Clark.

3 people share what they got from work

Cruise ship captain: ‘Bridges turn orange and red with the sun’

“Sitting on the bridge on a sea day is breathtaking,” says Arvia, who has spent 27 years in the cruise ship business and is about to helm Arvia, a new 5,500-guest giant cruising the Caribbean and Mediterranean. “You’ll get turquoise waters, crystal clear blue skies,” said P&O captain Robert Camby. .”

Captains are like “boys with toys,” he said, but stressed that there are also female captains. We have 50 nationalities and can understand so many cultures.”

The job also includes the theater, spa, kitchen, engine room, and managing director of a ship with a crew of 1,800. For passengers, the captain is like a celebrity, and he also opens shops and events. “It’s like walking around your town and being the mayor,” he said.

The main challenge was the weather, as he recently had to avoid a 9m swell caused by Storm Eunice. “It was pretty bad with the wind,” he said, but he got the ship safely to Southampton.

Overall, he said the job was “very rewarding”.

Decorator: “Really fun to finish the property”

Hanging £600 wallpaper in the homes of footballers and billionaires can be a stressful business. Any mistake can cost you a small amount. But there’s a lot of satisfaction in a job well done, says Adam Bown, 38. He runs his Divine Decorators in Cheshire, putting the finishing touches on a multi-million pound renovation of homes in the county’s affluent ‘Golden Triangle’.

“Remodeling rooms is a really satisfying part of this job,” he said, adding that he understood why the decorator ranked so high on the health chart. No one really appreciates a wall boiler, but a nice wallpaper.”

Bown has painted and decorated for football players such as David Beckham and Sergio Aguero. he said: It’s a great business to be in. Not very physical, but enough to keep you fit. It’s very detailed work and I really enjoy building good relationships with our customers. ”

Kitchen Porter: “My main thing is my family”

Emptying overflowing bins was the worst part of the job for 25-year-old Kayron Richardson, who worked as a kitchen porter at The Fat Duck. He worked 11-hour shifts washing dishes, compacting boxes and cleaning at his three-Michelin-starred Heston Blumenthal restaurant in Bray.

Despite being one of the most unrewarding jobs in catering, George Orwell described kitchen porters as “the slaves of the modern world.”

“I’ve never been afraid to go to work,” he said. “As long as the amount of work is reasonable, I focus on the people around me.” and had fun trying it out on my family at home.

“Work is a necessary process,” he said. “My family is my main thing. Any job I take on is done with them in mind.”