Supporting Employee Health at Work: How Perceptions Differ Across Wage Category

This study examines the association between sources of stress and perceptions of organizational and supervisor support for health and well-being.

Retrospective, cross-sectional analysis.

Large university in the mid-western United States.

This study focused on university employees with complete data for all variables (organizational support/N = 19,536; supervisor support/N = 20,287).

2019 socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, count of chronic conditions, sources of stress and perceptions of organizational and supervisor support.

For the multivariate analyzes, linear regression models were analyzed separately by wage bands (low ≤$46,100; middle >$46,100-$62,800; high >$62,800).

For all employees, workplace stressors, including problematic relationships at work and heavy job responsibilities, were negatively associated with perceptions of supervisor and organizational support. In comparison, the most salient home-based stressors were negatively associated with perceptions of supervisor support for the lowest-wage band (the death of a loved one, b = -0.13) and middle-wage band (personal illness or injury, b = -0.09), while the one for the highest-wage band (illness or injury of a loved one, b = 0.07) was positively associated with perceptions of supervisor support.

Stressful job responsibilities and work relationships are associated with lower perceptions of supervisor and organizational support for health and well-being across all wage bands. Favorable perceived support for personal stressors only among high wage earning employees may suggest a need for improved equity of perceived support for these stressors among lower wage workers.