Work Life Balance in the Netherlands: Flexible working hours and a flexible working place (Japanese)

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nature of Dutch approach to achieving Work Life Balance (WLB) and to draw policy implications for Japan. It is argued that flexibility of working hours and flexibility offered at one's working place are essential elements of WLB. In this respect, the Netherlands has attained relatively advanced policies and practices. For instance, workers in the Netherlands enjoy a strong degree of flexibility in terms of working hours, a system that strives to bring actual working hours close to desired working hours. Furthermore, the country is currently seeking to increase flexibility for workers in the choice of their place of work through the promotion of telework. First, this paper first positions the Netherlands in a cross-country comparison with other advanced countries—Japan, France, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States —that have adopted different approaches to the labour market and related public policies. Second, the paper presents a theoretical discussion on the flexibility of working hours. Third, it focuses on three important aspects of WLB in the Netherlands, namely, part-time work, family-friendly policies, and telework. Finally, the paper considers WLB policies and work-style practices in the Netherlands based on a hearing survey of four major private-sector companies.

Working Hours and Satisfaction: A comparative analysis of Japan, the United Kingdom, and Germany (Japanese)

We investigate the relationship between working hours and working-hour satisfaction and that between working hours and life satisfaction for white-collar permanent employees in Japan, the United Kingdom, and Germany. We use data obtained from the International Survey on Work-Life Balance , which was conducted by the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI) and the Economic and Social Research Institute, Cabinet Office (ESRI) in Japan. The survey shows that Japan has the highest proportion of workers with long weekly working hours. Also, the unconditional average of both working-hour satisfaction and life satisfaction in Japan is lower than that of the UK, and Germany. We estimate ordered probit models with working-hour satisfaction and life satisfaction as dependent variables. Estimation results show that with other things being equal, working-hour satisfaction decreases as weekly working hours increase in all three countries. Results for life satisfaction reveal similar patterns, although the impact of weekly working hours is smaller than in the case of working-hour satisfaction. We also calculate predictions on the basis of our estimation results in which we control for personal, occupational and other characteristics. The prediction results show that the conditional average of working-hour satisfaction and life satisfaction is not necessarily lower in Japan than in the UK or Germany, unlike what the unconditional results suggest. Phrased differently, working-hour satisfaction and life satisfaction for Japanese workers is not below the satisfaction levels of British and German workers that have the same characteristics. This difference in the conditional and unconditional results can be attributed to the fact that many more Japanese workers have characteristics that are connected with lower satisfaction levels. Our results thus suggest that it would be possible to increase working-hour satisfaction and life satisfaction in Japan if the institutional factors that currently bring people lower satisfaction can be altered. For instance, additional flexibility geared towards bringing actual working hours closer to desired working hours could prove worthwhile in increasing satisfaction levels.

Sacrificing their Careers for their Families? An Analysis of the Family Pay Penalty in Europe

This paper examines the extent of and the mechanisms behind the penalty to motherhood in six European countries. Each country provides different levels of support for maternal employment allowing us to determine institutional effects on labour market outcome. While mothers tend to earn less than non-mothers, the penalty to motherhood is considerably lower in countries with policy support for working mothers. The paper establishes the United Kingdom and West Germany to have the least policy support for working mothers as well as the largest penalties to motherhood