Tewerkstellingskwaliteit, gezondheid en welzijn voor werknemers en zelfstandigen

Abstract

At the beginning of the 21st century, the standard employment relationship (SER) is no longer the only dominant form of organizing labour. Instead, a variety of employment arrangements have appeared, both for the waged and self-employed. It is, however, unclear how this relates to health consequences. This is why, we introduce a multidimensional account of employment quality as a health determinant. We ran two latent class cluster analyses to construct typologies of employment quality (using the European Working Conditions Survey); one for the waged employed and one for the self-employed. These typologies were then merged into one composite indicator. Ten types of employment quality were revealed: SER-like, instrumental, precarious unsustainable, precarious intensive and portfolio jobs – among the waged employed; and dependent, insecure and intensive self-employment, small to medium sized employers, and stable own account work – among the self-employed. By applying a multidimensional account and considering the employment quality of both the waged and self-employed, we have moved beyond simple distinctions of waged versus self-employment. Using logistic regression analysis, we furthermore found strong associations between the typology of employment quality and health outcomes. The worst health and well-being were found among insecure, dependent, and intensive self-employment, and among precarious intensive and precarious unsustainable jobs. We found worse health outcomes for the self-employed with poor employment quality compared to the waged employed with poor employment quality. The study shows that employment quality should be taken seriously as a health determinant and is equally applicable to the waged and the self-employed.