What is the relationship between long working hours, over-employment, under-employment and the subjective well-being of workers. Longitudinal evidence from the UK.

Are long working hours, over-employment and under-employment associated with a reduction in subjective well-being (SWB)? If they are, is the association long or short-lasting? This paper answers these questions through within-person analysis of a nationally representative longitudinal survey from the United Kingdom. The results suggest that long working hours of work do not directly affect SWB, but in line with theories of person-environment fit, both over-employment and under-employment are associated with lower SWB. However, over-employment is more likely for those who work the longest hours. The duration of the SWB penalty associated with over-employment and under-employment is typically short, but SWB levels tend to remain depressed for those who remain over-employed for two years or more. Results suggest that state and organisational policies that reduce the incidence of long hours working may enhance aggregate well-being levels

Do economic conditions influence union activism behaviour?

This article develops and tests the theory that union activism is related to economic conditions using a nationally representative panel of workers from the UK. Results suggest that a fall in real wages of two percentage points and a three percentage point increase in the unemployment rate are both associated with a one tenth increase in the probability that a ‘benchmark’ worker will become a union activist (albeit from a low base). This relationship is largely explained by the behaviour of workers in highly unionised sectors

Long working hours and physical activity

Background. It is widely believed that persons employed in jobs demanding long working hours are at greater risk of physical inactivity than other workers, primarily because they have less leisure time available to undertake such activity. The aim of this study was to test this hypothesis using prospective data obtained from a nationally representative sample of employed persons. Methods. Longitudinal data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey (93367 observations from 17893 individuals) were used to estimate conditional fixed effects logistic regression models of the likelihood of moderate or vigorous physical exercise for at least 30 minutes at least 4 times are week. Results. No significant associations between long working hours and the incidence of healthy levels of physical activity were uncovered once other exogenous influences on activity levels were controlled for. The odds of men or women who usually work 60 or more hours per week exercising at healthy levels were 6% and 11% less, respectively, than those of comparable persons working a more standard 35 to 40 hour week, but neither estimate was significantly different from zero at the 95% confidence level. Conclusions. The findings suggest that there is no trade-off between long working hours and physical activity in Australia. It is argued that these findings are broadly consistent with previous research studies from Anglo-Saxon countries (where long work hours are pervasive) that employed large nationally representative samples

Working time and cigarette smoking: Evidence from Australia and the United Kingdom

This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Social Science & Medicine. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.04.031Cigarette smoking is a risk factor in a range of serious diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, stroke and type II diabetes. Theory suggests that working long hours will increase smoking propensities among workers. Consequently there is a significant body of evidence on the relationship between working time and smoking. Results, however, are inconsistent and therefore inconclusive. This paper provides new evidence on how working time affects smoking behaviour using nationally representative panel data from Australia (from 2002 to 2011) and the United Kingdom (from 1992 to 2011). We exploit the panel design of the surveys to look at within-person changes in smoking behaviour over time as working time changes. In contrast to most previous studies, this means we control for time invariant aspects of personality and genetic inheritance that may affect both smoking propensities and choice of working hours. We find that working long hours tends to increase the chances that former smokers will relapse, reduce the chances that smokers will quit and increase cigarette consumption among regular smokers, and that these effects tend to become more pronounced for workers who usually work very long hours (50 or more hours a week) compared to those who work moderately long hours (40-49 hours a week)

Do economic conditions influence union activism behaviour?

This article develops and tests the theory that union activism is related to economic conditions using a nationally representative panel of workers from the UK. Results suggest that a fall in real wages of two percentage points and a three percentage point increase in the unemployment rate are both associated with a one tenth increase in the probability that a ‘benchmark’ worker will become a union activist (albeit from a low base). This relationship is largely explained by the behaviour of workers in highly unionised sectors

Long working hours and physical activity

Background. It is widely believed that persons employed in jobs demanding long working hours are at greater risk of physical inactivity than other workers, primarily because they have less leisure time available to undertake such activity. The aim of this study was to test this hypothesis using prospective data obtained from a nationally representative sample of employed persons. Methods. Longitudinal data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey (93367 observations from 17893 individuals) were used to estimate conditional fixed effects logistic regression models of the likelihood of moderate or vigorous physical exercise for at least 30 minutes at least 4 times are week. Results. No significant associations between long working hours and the incidence of healthy levels of physical activity were uncovered once other exogenous influences on activity levels were controlled for. The odds of men or women who usually work 60 or more hours per week exercising at healthy levels were 6% and 11% less, respectively, than those of comparable persons working a more standard 35 to 40 hour week, but neither estimate was significantly different from zero at the 95% confidence level. Conclusions. The findings suggest that there is no trade-off between long working hours and physical activity in Australia. It is argued that these findings are broadly consistent with previous research studies from Anglo-Saxon countries (where long work hours are pervasive) that employed large nationally representative samples

Long working hours and cancer risk : a multi-cohort study

Background: Working longer than the maximum recommended hours is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, but the relationship of excess working hours with incident cancer is unclear. Methods: This multi-cohort study examined the association between working hours and cancer risk in 116 462 men and women who were free of cancer at baseline. Incident cancers were ascertained from national cancer, hospitalisation and death registers; weekly working hours were self-reported. Results: During median follow-up of 10.8 years, 4371 participants developed cancer (n colorectal cancer: 393; n lung cancer: 247; n breast cancer: 833; and n prostate cancer: 534). We found no clear evidence for an association between working hours and the overall cancer risk. Working hours were also unrelated the risk of incident colorectal, lung or prostate cancers. Working >= 55 h per week was associated with 1.60-fold (95% confidence interval 1.12-2.29) increase in female breast cancer risk independently of age, socioeconomic position, shift-and night-time work and lifestyle factors, but this observation may have been influenced by residual confounding from parity. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that working long hours is unrelated to the overall cancer risk or the risk of lung, colorectal or prostate cancers. The observed association with breast cancer would warrant further research