Job Satisfaction and Life Satisfaction of Accountancy Graduates Over 50 Years

Abstract

This paper reports the findings of the first large sample survey of job and life satisfaction for one university’s accounting alumni graduating from 1962 to 2014. The alumni have relatively high job and life satisfaction scores. Factor analysis is used to obtain summary satisfaction scores, which are then regressed on control and accounting-specific variables. Job satisfaction increases with salary and health. Women’s job satisfaction also increases with law or graduate accounting degrees, while men’s job satisfaction also increases with age and long tenure at Big N firms. For life satisfaction, regression results suggest that married currently, children, health, and retirement increase life satisfaction for both men and women. Life satisfaction for men increases with salary but decreases with being unemployed. Women’s life satisfaction increases when they have graduate accounting degrees or other non-law graduate degrees but decreases when they are currently working at Big N firms.

Keywords: Educational outcomes, accounting graduates, job satisfaction, life satisfaction, graduate degree, Big 4, gender differences, CPA, auditing, survey

JEL Classification: C18, C38, I21, I26, J16, J28, J44, L84, M41, M42