I Can Afford to Relax: Relating Perceived Income Adequacy to Recovery and Health

Abstract

Employee recovery during non-work hours benefits health in a variety of areas. However, little research has evaluated how recovery may be affected by perceptions of income (in)adequacy. The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationships among workers’ perceived income adequacy (PIA), relaxation remorse, recovery experiences outside of work, and health outcomes. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling with data obtained from a two-wave, time-lagged survey of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) workers (N = 683). We found a positive relationship between PIA and recovery, which were both related to better health. PIA was negatively related to relaxation remorse, with relaxation remorse being associated with poor health. There was evidence of indirect relationships via relaxation remorse, where relaxation remorse explained portions of the relationships between PIA and health symptoms. Indirect relationships via recovery experiences were largely unsupported. Our findings expand our understanding of employee recovery as it relates to perceptions of income. Specifically, our studies highlight that one’s perceived income adequacy may be an important contributor to comfort with and/or actual experienced recovery, which can have further health effects.