Abstract
Women’s participation in society has been increasing; however, they often remain overloaded with housework, and this gender role difference can hinder their work-life balance in Korea. Therefore, this study classified latent profiles according to job quality indices for South Korean female employees and examined the characteristics of each profile and how they affect work-life balance. This study was a secondary analysis of data collected through the fifth Korean Working Conditions Survey in South Korea. The Bayesian information criterion, entropy, and the Lo-Mendell-Rubin adjusted likelihood ratio test were used to determine the number of latent profiles. Chi-square tests were conducted to understand the characteristics of each profile. Comparisons between work-life balance and the latent profiles were made using the Bolck-Croon-Hagenaars method. Female employees in South Korea were classified into five profiles: “high-flying”, “smooth”, ”footloose”, ”strict” and “manual”. The “footloose” profile showed the most positive work-life balance, and the “manual” profile had the highest level of work-family conflict. Therefore, policies and social supports should be created with the aim of improving the implementation of current strategies promoting work-life balance to better fit each working condition.
Highlights
Received: 10 December 2020Job quality is important to individuals and is a central policy concern as countries strive to promote economic growth and manage the threat of a low birth rate and an aging population [1]
To classify profiles according to the seven job quality indices, latent profiles were examined in consideration of various statistical criteria (Table 1)
This study started from the limitations of previous studies, which did not reflect the multifaceted aspect of the quality of work-life balance of South Korean female employees
Summary
Job quality is important to individuals and is a central policy concern as countries strive to promote economic growth and manage the threat of a low birth rate and an aging population [1]. According to South Korean employmentrelated indicators in 2019, temporary employment accounted for 24% of all workers; this was the fourth highest rate of countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) [2], and the rate of low-pay workers was 17%, the sixth highest in the OECD [3]. Minimum wage relative to average wages of full-time workers was the sixth highest in the OECD [4], the ratio of employees working below the minimum wage was 16.5% [5]. The average annual hours worked per worker was 1967, the third highest in the OECD and 300 h longer than the OECD average [6]. The proportion of employees who were satisfied with their overall job in their workplace was low, at 32.3% [7]
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