It's Who You Work With: Effects of Workplace Shares of Nonstandard Employees and Women in Japan

Abstract

Previous research on workplace composition has not addressed how the share of nonstandard employees affects individual workers' opportunities and well-being. Moreover, existing studies generally assume that the effect of a group's numerical representation is mediated through the group's relative power and status within establishments. This study asks whether workplace composition matters when the size of each social group has little impact on its relative status. Specifically, I examine the economic and psychological consequences of the proportions of nonstandard employees and women in Japanese workplaces, where both groups are typically secondary workers who lack power regardless of their relative size. The results indicate that working in establishments with modest proportions of nonstandard employees enhances individuals' wages and likelihood of promotion, but working in those with higher proportions is detrimental. Conversely, the greater the share of nonstandard employees in a workplace, the more likely all workers are to suffer psychologically. Workplace gender composition is also linked to Japanese workers' reported chances of promotion and life satisfaction, but it is relevant to fewer worker outcomes than employment-status composition. This analysis underscores the need to consider workplace demography, even if the power and status gaps between different social groups vary little with each group's share within establishments. In addition, the findings suggest that the global trend of increasing nonstandard work arrangements has a more extensive impact on disparities among workers than prior research implies.

Employment conditions and non-coresidential partnership in very-low fertility countries: Italy and Japan

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Precarious or Decent Work? Perceived Working Conditions and Life Satisfaction of SME Workers in Sylhet, Bangladesh

“…However, in the same study, it was also found that overall 21% respondents think that it is bad for the economy considering India where 51% respondents see trade unions as bad for country's economy. Additionally, work-related distress (Yu 2013), wage, working hours (Medagyesi Zlyomi 2016) and working schedule and leave provisions (Makabe et al 2015), all affect worker's job satisfaction and quality of life.…”

Educational Achievement of Children From Single‐Mother and Single‐Father Families: The Case of Japan

“…In addition, among male employees, 18.9% are nonstandard employees, whereas this percentage is 53.8% among female employees (MHLW, ). In Japan, nonstandard employees are treated as outsiders in their workplaces and are deprived of protection, opportunities, rewards, and benefits, whereas training opportunities and job security are provided to standard employees under the lifetime employment system (Yu, ). Past studies have mainly used three explanations—cultural, social, and economic—to explain the pervasive gender inequality in the labor force and family life.…”

“…Third, the highly unequal gender division of labor among spouses in Japanese society calls for investigating the different mechanism of inequity between single‐father and single‐mother families. In Japan, a high proportion of women quit their jobs after marriage, particularly after childbirth (Shirahase, ), and they are more likely to be hired as nonstandard employees even if they return to the labor force (Yu, ). In addition, the cultural belief of intensive mothering, with mothers bearing the chief responsibility and investing their time and skills in child rearing and child's education, is pervasive (Bumpass, Rindfuss, Choe, & Tsuya, ; Honda, ).…”