A few years ago, in 2018, satisfied with their job were 68% around the world, 15% were not, and other 17% were neutral on this matter. It seems that recent years of uncertainty have not significantly affected peoples’ perceptions.

Current attitudes show that job satisfaction is, as expected, mostly affected by one’s income and education – the better educated or well-paid a person is, the more satisfaction the job brings. Other demographic characteristics like gender or age seem to have little impact on people’s attitudes towards their work.

In some African counties for instance people who say they are satisfied with their job are a minority (31%), and those who are not are about a half of all respondents. In India the share (49%) of those who are satisfied with their job is also relatively low compared to the rest of the world. Most happy with their job on the other hand are people in Europe (both EU and Non-EU countries), USA, West Asia, but also Latin America, where shares of people happy with what they do reaches up to 70%.

Not so happy about the wage

Remuneration satisfaction is not necessarily related to job attitudes. One can be happy with a job, and still not satisfied with what they get from it, and vice versa. Shares of remuneration satisfaction are traditionally lower. The current wave of polling shows that almost half (47%) of working people around the world is happy with their payment, near a third (31%) is however not satisfied and 19% of the respondents are “neither/nor”.

At the end of 2018 half (49%) of world’s population were happy with their salary, 29% were not and 21% were neutral. Thus, attitudes remain stable despite the years of COVID, war outbreaks and economic uncertainty around the world.

Current results also show that male respondents are slightly happier with their remuneration than female. Younger people are also a bit happier with their wage than older generations. Age and gender however play a small role in remuneration satisfaction compared to income and education which again seem to be dominant predictor for people’s attitudes.

Worldwide societies in wealthier countries and regions show notably higher shares of personal satisfaction with wage. Huge countries like India and regions Africa again stand out with smallest shares of people happy with their payment – between 20% and 30%. Western societies (Europe – both EU and Non-EU countries), USA, and again Latin America rank highest in people’s satisfaction with wage.

When asked about their expectations of AI for the world, younger people are more optimistic and see more opportunities in its development, older generations are more worried. Most educated respondents are also a bit more optimistic than those with lower education.

Region-wise there is a prominent division between views in countries from the North/West of the world and those in South/ East. In USA, Canada, and Europe those who expect more problems to come with the new technology are reaching up to a half of all respondents, and those who see more opportunities are about 20 – 25%. In Russia only 19% see more opportunities in the AI. The country also stands out with the biggest share of people who admit that they do not know enough to form an opinion and another 17% who do not know how to answer at all.

In India, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, on the other hand, concerns about AI are still present but more people are prone to expect opportunities with the development of AI.

Overall, it is evident that countries which are more economically developed are somewhat more concerned about the effects of artificial intelligence for the world. The rest of the world sees an opportunity, although fear of the new technology is still relevant.

All over the world shares of answers “I do not feel informed enough” are significant – between 20 and 30%, which comes to show that threat or opportunity is yet to be defined.

“While the artificial intelligence is transforming the very meaning of the word work and the experiments with the guaranteed minimum income are spreading around, still the traditional remuneration remains the key factor for the satisfaction of the working people. But the gap between the so called golden billion and the remaining other seven billion most probably will deepen with a more intense introduction of AI.”