The Covid-19 lockdown in the United Kingdom and subjective well-being: Have the self-employed suffered more due to hours and income reductions?

Abstract

It is well documented that the self-employed experience higher levels of happiness than waged employees even when their incomes are lower. Given the UK government’s asymmetric treatment of waged workers and the self-employed, we use a unique Covid-19 period data set which covers the months leading up to the March lockdown and the months just after to assess three aspects of the Covid-19 crisis on the self-employed: hours of work reductions, the associated income reductions and the effects of both on subjective well-being. Our findings show the large and disproportionate reductions in hours and income for the self-employed directly contributed to a deterioration in their levels of subjective well-being compared to waged workers. It appears that their resilience was broken when faced with the reality of dealing with rare events, particularly when the UK welfare support response was asymmetric and favouring waged employees.

Managers of micro-sized enterprises and Covid-19: impact on business operations, work-life balance and well-being

“…The results are supported by a recent investigation in England showing that the pandemic had negatively impacted entrepreneurs’ mental well-being, life satisfaction and stress [ 20 ]. In addition, a study showed that reduction in work hours and income of self-employed people directly contributed to decreased subjective well-being compared to those employed in organisations [ 6 ].…”

“…According to a European investigation related to experiences of the pandemic [ 1 ], self-employed people that most often are owners of a micro-enterprise reported significantly higher job insecurity and a worse domestic financial situation compared to employees. A recent study shows that the disproportionate reduction in hours and income for self-employed people led to a deterioration in subjective well-being compared to salaried workers [ 6 ].…”

Associations Between Self-reported Inhibitory Control, Stress, and Alcohol (Mis)use During the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the UK: a National Cross-sectional Study Utilising Data From Four Birth Cohorts

“…Again, this was most likely associated with financial stability. For instance, many people who rely on state welfare have been receiving Universal Credit which has been shown to be associated with psychological distress (Wickham et al, 2020), and recent research has shown that self-employed people have suffered a large and disproportionate reduction in income during the pandemic (Yue & Cowling, 2021). Finally, in all but the youngest cohorts, there was evidence to suggest that non-White ethnicity was associated with a decreased likelihood of alcohol-related harm due to hazardous drinking, and among 30-year-olds non-White ethnicity was associated with a decreased likelihood of reporting and increase in alcohol use.…”

Happiness Management: A Culture to Explore From Brand Orientation as a Sign of Responsible and Sustainable Production

“…These are not trivial issues in times of economic crisis, such as the one currently caused by COVID-19. As is well known, in periods of severe economic recession, companies are forced to freeze or lower their workers' wages (Yue and Cowling, 2021). In this context, there is extensive literature that suggests, on the one hand, that monetary income has a significant impact on the social wellbeing of human beings (Chumg and Huang, 2021).…”