Quality of Employment Survey, 1977: Cross-Section

This study contains data on the working conditions of 1,515 workers aged 16 and older who were working for pay for 20 or more hours per week in the United States in 1977. This survey is the third undertaken by the investigators to provide an overview of working conditions in the American labor force. The aims of this survey and many of the questions that were asked were comparable to those of the related collections, SURVEY OF WORKING CONDITIONS, 1969-1970 (ICPSR 3507), and QUALITY OF EMPLOYMENT SURVEY, 1972-1973 (ICPSR 3510). The major measures used in each of the three surveys were the frequency and severity of labor standards problems, the quality of employment indicators that were shown to be predictors of job satisfaction, the job satisfaction indices themselves, and the ratings of important job facets. Respondents were asked questions about many facets of their job situations and other areas of their lives that might be affected by their jobs in order to assess the impact of work on them. Questions included job tension, security, physical health, job satisfaction, and financial well-being. A series of questions regarding job expectations was also asked. Additional questions probed respondents' feelings about their overall contentment with their jobs and with life in general. This survey differs from the earlier surveys in the greater emphasis that was placed on questions related to respondents' feelings about their work culture, physical work environment, discrimination at work, job fringe benefits, and labor unions, as well as child care provisions, nature of time spent with children and spouse, use of leisure time, and electoral participation. Demographic variables provide information on age, sex, marital status, race, education, and income.