In seven years of data from theConference Board, this is the first year that youngworkers have reported higher wage satisfaction than olderemployees. (Photo: Shutterstock)

Despite shouldering record amounts of student debt and being less likely to own ahome as older people were at the same age, millennials andGeneration Z workers report slightly more satisfaction with paythan their parents' generation.

A survey of 2,000 employees by Conference Board, a business research group,finds that 46 percent of workers under 35 were happy with theircompensation in 2018, up from 36 percent just a year earlier.

Related: What's driving employees' jobsatisfaction?

The highest rate of satisfaction (48 percent) came fromemployees age 35 to 54, most of whom would be described asGeneration X. Slightly less likely to be happy are workers over 55,a group that consists almost entirely of baby boomers, 44 percentof whom are satisfied with their pay.

In 2018 median weekly wages rose 5 percent overall. For youngworkers, they increased 7.6 percent.

This is the first year when young workers have reported higherwage satisfaction than older employees. In the previous seven yearsof data from the Conference Board, those under 35 were oftensignificantly less likely to be happy with their earnings.

In 2011, for instance, only 29 percent of young workers weresatisfied, compared to 35 percent of those over 55 and 41 percentof those between 35-54.

The fact that most workers don't report happiness withcompensation doesn't necessarily mean most American employees aremiserable. There's more to a job than money, after all. In fact,the job satisfaction rate –– 53.7 percent –– is the highest it'sbeen since the Conference Board began conducting research in2003.

Job satisfaction plunged after the 2008 recession, hitting a lowof 42.6 percent in 2010. It has gradually increased since then.

Part of the rise in overall job satisfaction may be due to theincreased sense of job security. Over 59.2 percent reportedsatisfaction with the security of their employment in 2018, up from53.8 percent the previous year.

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