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A shorter working week for everyone: How much paid work is needed for mental health and well-being?

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  • Kamerāde, Daiga
  • Wang, Senhu
  • Burchell, Brendan
  • Balderson, Sarah Ursula
  • Coutts, Adam

Abstract

There are predictions that in future rapid technological development could result in a significant shortage of paid work. A possible option currently debated by academics, policy makers, trade unions, employers and mass media, is a shorter working week for everyone. In this context, two important research questions that have not been asked so far are: what is the minimum amount of paid employment needed to deliver some or all of the well-being and mental health benefits that employment has been shown to bring? And what is the optimum number of working hours at which the mental health of workers is at its highest? To answer these questions, this study used the UK Household Longitudinal Study (2009–2018) data from individuals aged between 16 and 64. The analytical sample was 156,734 person-wave observations from 84,993 unique persons of whom 71,113 had two or more measurement times. Fixed effects regressions were applied to examine how changes in work hours were linked to changes in mental well-being within each individual over time. This study found that even a small number of working hours (between one and 8 h a week) generates significant mental health and well-being benefits for previously unemployed or economically inactive individuals. The findings suggest there is no single optimum number of working hours at which well-being and mental health are at their highest - for most groups of workers there was little variation in wellbeing between the lowest (1–8 h) through to the highest (44–48 h) category of working hours. These findings provide important and timely empirical evidence for future of work planning, shorter working week policies and have implications for theorising the future models of organising work in society.

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  • Kamerāde, Daiga & Wang, Senhu & Burchell, Brendan & Balderson, Sarah Ursula & Coutts, Adam, 2019. "A shorter working week for everyone: How much paid work is needed for mental health and well-being?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:241:y:2019:i:c:s0277953619303284
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.06.006
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    2. Walsh, Brendan & Doorley, Karina, 2022. "Occupations and health," Papers BP2023/3, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    3. Brendan Burchell & Senhu Wang & Daiga Kamerade & Ioulia Bessa & Jill Rubery, 2020. "Cut Hours, Not People: No Work, Furlough, Short Hours and Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the UK," Working Papers wp521, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    4. Halliki Kreinin & Ernest Aigner, 2022. "From “Decent work and economic growth” to “Sustainable work and economic degrowth”: a new framework for SDG 8," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 49(2), pages 281-311, May.
    5. Anand, Paul & Blanchflower, Danny & Bovens, Luc & De Neve, Jan-Emmanuel & Graham, Carol & Nolan, Brian & Krekel, Christian & Thoma, Johanna, 2020. "Post-Covid 19 economic development and policy: submitted as recommendations to the Scottish economic recovery group," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 105023, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Senhu Wang & Adam Coutts & Brendan Burchell & Daiga KamerÄ de & Ursula Balderson, 2021. "Can Active Labour Market Programmes Emulate the Mental Health Benefits of Regular Paid Employment? Longitudinal Evidence from the United Kingdom," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 35(3), pages 545-565, June.
    7. Sugumar Mariappanadar, 2024. "Improving Quality of Work for Positive Health: Interaction of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8 and SDG 3 from the Sustainable HRM Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-19, June.
    8. Malte Jauch, 2020. "The rat race and working time regulation," Politics, Philosophy & Economics, , vol. 19(3), pages 293-314, August.
    9. Gábor Szabó-Szentgróti & Bence Végvári & József Varga, 2021. "Impact of Industry 4.0 and Digitization on Labor Market for 2030-Verification of Keynes’ Prediction," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-19, July.
    10. Simpson, Julija & Wildman, John & Bambra, Clare & Brown, Heather, 2024. "Longer Working Hours and Maternal Mental Health: A Comparison of Single vs. Partnered Mothers," IZA Discussion Papers 16875, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Senhu Wang & Lambert Zixin Li, 2023. "Double Jeopardy: The Roles of Job Autonomy and Spousal Gender Ideology in Employed Women’s Mental Health," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 18(1), pages 473-490, February.
    12. Senhu Wang & Liran Morav, 2021. "Exploring Extrinsic and Intrinsic Work Values of British Ethnic Minorities: The Roles of Demographic Background, Job Characteristics and Immigrant Generation," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-21, November.
    13. Isham, Amy & Mair, Simon & Jackson, Tim, 2021. "Worker wellbeing and productivity in advanced economies: Re-examining the link," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    14. Lu, Zhuofei & Wang, Senhu & Ling, Wanying & Guo, Ya, 2023. "Gig work and mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic: A gendered examination of comparisons with regular employment and unemployment," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 337(C).
    15. Claire Duchene & Ilan Tojerow & Benoît Bayenet, 2023. "Policy brief :Le travail est-il bon pour la santé ?," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/357233, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    16. Gerold, Stefanie & Hoffmann, Maja & Aigner, Ernest, 2023. "Towards a critical understanding of work in ecological economics: A postwork perspective," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    17. Melissa Sharpe & Claire Hutchinson & June Alexander, 2022. "The Lived Experiences and Perspectives of People with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Mainstream Employment in Australia," Disabilities, MDPI, vol. 2(2), pages 1-14, March.

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