Journal of Nursing, Social Studies, Public Health and Rehabilitation X:X | DOI: 10.32725/jnss.2026.014

Job satisfaction of social workers: public vs. non-profit sector

Barbora Tvarohová, Alena Hricová ORCID...*
Prague College of Psychosocial Studies, Department of Social Work, Prague, Czech Republic

Background: Job satisfaction shapes the quality, stability, and continuity of social services. Evidence from the Czech context comparing the public and non-profit sectors using a validated instrument remains scarce.

Aim: To compare overall and domain-specific job satisfaction of social workers employed in the public and non-profit sectors in the Czech Republic, and to identify socio-demographic and organisational correlates.

Methods: Cross-sectional online survey (April-July 2025) of 510 qualified social workers (244 public, 266 non-profit) using the Czech version of the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS, 36 items, nine domains). Independent-samples t-tests, Spearman correlations, Kruskal-Wallis tests, ANOVA, and binary logistic regression were calculated in Jamovi 2.6.26.

Results: Non-profit workers reported higher overall satisfaction (M = 143.21, SD = 26.94) than public-sector workers (M = 132.45, SD = 28.73), t(508) = -4.337, p < 0.001, d = 0.384. Significant sector differences emerged in eight of nine JSS domains, with the largest effects for communication (d = 0.447), operating conditions (d = 0.385), and pay (d = 0.336). Job satisfaction correlated negatively with perceived stress (rs = -0.468) and intent to leave (rs = -0.520); each one-point JSS increase reduced the odds of intent to leave by 3.7% (OR = 0.963).

Conclusion: Czech non-profit organisations outperform public bodies across nearly all facets of job satisfaction. Investing in internal communication, working conditions, supervision, and reward systems is likely to improve retention in both sectors.

Keywords: Czech Republic; Job satisfaction; Non-profit sector; Public sector; Social work; Supervision
Conflicts of interest:

The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

Received: May 5, 2026; Revised: May 29, 2026; Accepted: June 26, 2026; Prepublished online: June 26, 2026 

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