Letters to the Editor
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@ AKA Smith
I surely hope I didn't give the impression that I think the value or worthwhileness of a job can be measured by its pay rate. That would certainly be, well, hypocritical of me, to say the least.
I meant that if this study looked only at certain kinds of employment, at "career women" or "professional" women, then all kinds of factors related to income, work hours, and available or perceived choices come into play that could certainly skew the happiness outcomes, rather than just employment itself being the primary independent variable. But no, I don't think that says anything about the intrinsic societal value of low-paying or less respected jobs or the people who do them. So again, I'd be curious to see whether or not this was studied across income and education brackets, and across women who have a chosen "profession" as well as those who have jobs of necessity or happenstance. Not to say that one condition is superior to another.
(I live in a city that would be literally *paralyzed* within two days without its waste management workers and baristas.)