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

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: This study examines the association between sources of stress and perceptions of organizational and supervisor support for health and well-being. DESIGN: Retrospective, cross-sectional analysis. SETTING: Large university in the mid-western United States. SAMPLE This study focused on university employees with complete data for all variables (organizational support/N = 19,536; supervisor support/N = 20,287). MEASURES: 2019 socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, count of chronic conditions, sources of stress and perceptions of organizational and supervisor support. ANALYSIS: For the multivariate analyzes, linear regression models were analyzed separately by wage bands (low ≤$46,100; middle >$46,100-$62,800; high >$62,800). RESULTS: 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. CONCLUSION: 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.