Nonstandard Employment and Health in South Korea: The Role of Gender and Family Status

Abstract

Using nationally representative longitudinal data collected in South Korea from 2006 to 2013, this study evaluates the associations between nonstandard employment and various health outcomes with a focus on gender differences. We also examine to what extent family status, that is, marital status and parenthood, conditions these associations for men and women. Our results reveal an important role of selection in that many of the significantly negative associations between nonstandard/self-employment and health outcomes disappear in fixed-effects models when time-invariant unobserved individual heterogeneity is taken into account. Such negative selection appears to be more pronounced for men than for women. We also find a significant association between nonstandard/self-employment and health, which differs by gender and particular health outcomes examined. As for the moderating role of family status, our results show that mothers do benefit from self-employment in terms of lower depressive symptoms.

Relationship between Employment Type and Self-Rated Health among Korean Immigrants in the US: Focusing on Gender and Number of Years in the US

“…It is noteworthy that none of the variables included in the statistical model significantly predict self-rated health among Korean men, who could be considered a more prestigious group in the labor market. This finding echoes that of a previous study [ 13 ], which found no impact from self-employment or nonstandard employment on health outcomes among men in Korea; however, these types of employment negatively impact health among women. To explain this difference by gender, Lim and her colleagues [ 13 ] suggested that women are already negatively selected into these types of employment.…”

“…This finding echoes that of a previous study [ 13 ], which found no impact from self-employment or nonstandard employment on health outcomes among men in Korea; however, these types of employment negatively impact health among women. To explain this difference by gender, Lim and her colleagues [ 13 ] suggested that women are already negatively selected into these types of employment. Future studies must explore other factors related to the health of Korean immigrant men in the US.…”

“…Third, marital status was assessed as married vs. unmarried, so further analyses based on more diverse options in marital status, such as divorced or widowed, were not applied in the current study. Fourth, although this study found no relationship between marital status and self-rated health among Korean immigrants, family and parenting status may be related to the health of Korean immigrants, as noted by a previous study [ 13 ]. Finally, this study measured self-rated health through one simple question, rather than multiple questions, including how much a respondent paid for medicine within the past year or how many times they visited a doctor to address a health complaint.…”

“…Prior studies have found that employees’ self-rated health also differs depending on employment type, which can be categorized as follows: permanent vs. non-permanent [ 9 ], precarious vs. non-precarious [ 10 ], and self-employed vs. employed [ 11 , 12 ]. For example, those in precarious [ 10 ] and nonstandard employment situations [ 13 ] tend not to report good health or greater health risks compared to those with full-time permanent employment. The findings regarding the relationship between self-employment and self-rated health are inconsistent; although most studies have found a negative relationship between self-employment and health [ 14 , 15 ], few report a positive relationship between self-employment and health status [ 16 ].…”

Nonstandard Employment, Gender, and Subjective Well‐Being in Japan

“…NSE includes various arrangements such as part-time jobs, fixed-contract work, on-call/day labor, and temporary-help agency work that differ from the standard, full-time employment relationship (Kalleberg et al, 2000) and are often characterized by low earnings, limited benefits, employment insecurity, and few opportunities for career advancement (Fuller, 2011;Giesecke & Groß, 2003;Kalleberg et al, 2000;McDonald et al, 2009;McGovern et al, 2004). The rapid growth in NSE represents a profound structural transformation in the labor market that has widespread social consequences for other nonwork domains of individuals and families (Kalleberg, 2018;Kalleberg & Vallas, 2017), such as health (Lim et al, 2018), homeownership (Lersch & Dewilde, 2015), marriage, and family formation (Lim, 2017;Piotrowski et al, 2015;. However, we know relatively little about relationships between nonstandard work arrangements and subjective well-being (SWB) and how they may vary across social categories, including gender.…”