Long Working Hours and Job Quality in Europe: Gender and Welfare State Differences

Abstract

Chronic extreme long working hours (LWH) have been found consistently associated with poor health status. However, the evidence for moderately LWH (41–60 h a week) is contradictory. Although poor job quality has been proposed as one of the mechanisms of this relationship, there are almost no studies about LWH and job quality. The objectives of this study were to analyze the association between moderately LWH and job quality in the EU27, as well as to examine differences by welfare regimes and gender. This is a cross-sectional study based on data from the 2010 European Working Conditions Survey. A subsample of employees from the EU27 aged 16–64 years who worked 30–60 h a week was selected (12,574 men and 8787 women). Overall, moderately LWH were not consistently associated with poor job quality except among women from Eastern European countries. Therefore, in the EU27 poor job quality does not seem to explain the relationship between moderately LWH and poor health status. The findings among women from Eastern European countries may be related to their weakened position in the labor market and to their work-family conflict resulting from a process of re-familisation that constrains their choices for a good job.

EXPLORING THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN R&D EXPENDITURE AND THE JOB QUALITY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

“…• Average number of usual weekly hours of work in the main job (WH). The WB has been explored in studies that intend to investigate the impact of long working hours on job quality (Artazcoz et al, 2018). The average number of working hours in the EU has remained relatively steady despite a trend over the last 10 years of a small reduction (average for 2009 was 38.3 hours and for 2018 is 37.9 hours).…”

Impact of Work Hour on Employee Social Wellbeing in Northern Ireland

“…Also, the effect on sleep and mental health when workers work long hours (Afonso et al, 2017); the effects of extended hours on the health of shift workers (Harrington, 2001). But according to Artazcoz et al (2018), the conclusions of these and other studies have been mainly contradictory. These studies define long working hours as working in excess of between 40 to 55 hours per week, and in some extreme cases in Asia where they work for upwards 60 hours per week with a commonly practiced system referred to as 996 (from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm, 6 times a week) (Virtanen & Kivimaki, 2018).…”

“…Also, Van Der Hulst & Geurts (2001) concluded that in low motivated situations, involuntary overtime might lead to mental health issues, which may then suggest that when long working hours occur in poor quality jobs. However, it is considered a significant risk because of the health impact as compared to spending long work hours in professional and more rewarding careers (Beckers et al, 2004;Johnson & Lipscomb, 2006;Artazcoz et al, 2018).…”

Working Hours, Sleep Disturbance and Self-Assessed Health in Men and Women: A Multilevel Analysis of 30 Countries in Europe

“…Also, a report conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2019 indicated that time spent in paid work reduced below 40 h in most countries in Europe, with Netherland, Norway, and Switzerland reporting the lowest working hours respectively ( 3 ). Despite these reductions, there are several reports about longer hours in paid work in many countries including United Kingdom, Eastern European countries ( 4 ), Israel, Costa Rica, Mexico, Columbia, Turkey ( 5 ), China, Korea, Japan ( 2 ). This may be due to increased workload, tight deadlines, organizational commitment, recognition, promotion, and job insecurity that many workers experience ( 6 ).…”