Roughly 83 percent of American workers feel stressed out by their jobs, up from 73 percent a year ago, according to a new study by Harris Interactive for Everest College. Low pay tops the list of reasons for the third consecutive year. The study was conducted by phone among 1,000 adults between Feb. 21 and March 3.

Another top stressor is unreasonable workload, with 14 percent saying they had too much to do, up from 9 percent last year. Third place was annoying coworkers and commuting, which tied at 11 percent. This was followed by working in a job that was not the person's chosen career (8 percent), poor work-life balance (7 percent), lack of opportunity for advancement (6 percent) and fear of being fired (4 percent).

The survey shows gender differences in the responses: 18 percent of women cited low pay as the most stressful aspect of their job compared with 10 percent of men, while men's No. 1 stressor was unreasonable workloads (14 percent), followed by annoying coworkers (12 percent).

Educational levels also make a difference. For those with a high school diploma or less, low pay ranked as the top stressor (18 percent), followed by annoying coworkers (14 percent). College grads ranked unreasonable workload as the No. 1 stressor (17 percent), followed by their commute (12 percent).

Not surprisingly, for workers earning less than $35,000, 26 percent named low pay as the top stressor, while 16 percent of those with household incomes of $100,000 a year or more cited unreasonable workload as their biggest problem.

The survey did uncover some happy workers, like the 18 percent of those making $100,000 or more who said nothing at work stresses them. But that number is down from last year, when 37 percent of that group said they were stress-free. Among lower-wage workers this year, only 9 percent said they felt stress-free on the job.

Special Reports /

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