Employment Quality as a Health Determinant: Empirical Evidence for the Waged and Self-Employed
Jessie Gevaert, Karen Van Aerden, Deborah De Moortel, Christophe Vanroelen
Abstract
In this study, the authors investigate the health associations of different employment arrangements in the contemporary European labor market. In doing so, a new approach based on the concept of “employment quality” is introduced. Employment quality refers to the multiple dimensions characterizing the employment situation of wage- and self-employed (European Working Conditions Survey 2015 – N = 31,929). Latent class cluster analyses were applied to construct an overarching typology of employment quality for the waged and self-employed. Using logistic regression analyses, strong associations were found with mental well-being and self-reported general health, pointing at a disadvantaged situation for the most precarious employment arrangements. The study shows that employment quality should be taken seriously as a health determinant both among waged workers and the self-employed. Our (novel) holistic approach offers an alternative to current analyses of the health associates of labor market segmentation that were criticized for being overly simplistic and amounting to inconclusive findings.