Education mismatch and qualification mismatch: monetary and non-monetary consequences for workers

Using Spanish data from European Union Household Panel Survey corresponding to 2001, we find that the incidence and the consequences, monetary and non-monetary, are different for the job-worker qualification and education mismatches. In fact, only 36% of workers have the same type of fit under both criterions of classification. Additionally, the qualification mismatches have worse consequences for workers than education mismatches. Specifically, the monetary consequences are neutrals for overqualified workers, but negatives for underqualified workers, while the wage of educational mismatched workers is not significantly different of those who have similar characteristics and are accurately match in terms of formal education. However, the overeducated workers earn higher wages than their well-matched co-workers and the wage penalization for one year of undereducation is lower than the reward for one year of required education. On the other hand, the analysis of the non-monetary consequences, by means of job satisfaction, shows that the qualification mismatched workers have lower probability of being completely satisfied than those who are accurately match in terms of qualification, while the effects of education mismatch situations on job satisfaction are no significant. However, among similar jobs, the years of educational mismatch can have an effect even positive on job satisfaction