Nexus Between Teachers’ Remuneration and Teachers’ Job Satisfaction

Abstract

Teachers’ job satisfaction is amongst the fundamental factors that are applied in determining the success of a school. A teacher who is satisfied is most likely to give more effort in pursuit of the school’s success, whereas a teacher who is dissatisfied is likely to laze; hence, the students would not achieve the optimum benefits of education. This study seeks to establish the relationship between teachers’ remuneration and teachers’ job satisfaction in public secondary schools in Molo Sub County, Kenya. The study is anchored on Herzberg’s theory and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theories, and a conceptual framework showing the relationship between the independent and dependent variables was given. A mixed methods methodology, which employed both quantitative and qualitative methods, was adopted. The study adopted the correlational research design. The study’s target population included 423 teachers, 33 principals and one director of education. Stratified random sampling was applied to select the 10 schools, 10 principals and 201 teachers who took part in the study as sample size. The SubCounty Director of Education in Molo Sub County was also selected purposively. Questionnaires were used to obtain primary data. Data was analysed using both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics and presented using tables and figures. The findings revealed that teacher’s remuneration provided decent living earnings. The pay was compared to other workers in school and equitable to the work done. However, remuneration, as compared with the private sector, department and workload, needs improvement. Therefore, teacher’s remuneration had a strong positive correlation with job satisfaction. The study concluded that teachers’ remuneration had a positive and significant effect on job satisfaction. The study recommended the use of remodelling remuneration to be compared with the private sector and other departments.