at the global level. Even if a universal definition of work quality were agreed on, comparable cross-national datasets would probably be limited. Despite these challenges, several initiatives are in place to put forward regionally—and in some cases, globally—comparable measures of job quality, including composite indicators that capture multiple dimensions of work quality (box 1.2). While work is generally beneficial for people, the quality of work can be affected by doing too much work. A culture of overwork is increasingly common, facilitated by all kinds of mobile devices that enable constant access to work. The pressure of a round-the-clock work culture is particularly acute in highly skilled, highly paid professional service jobs such as law, finance, consulting and accounting.6 The overwork culture can lock gender inequality in place, because work–family balance is made more difficult for women, who bear a disproportionate share of care work. Among Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, the highest prevalence of overwork—defined as a work week of 50 hours or more—is in Turkey
(close to 41 percent of the formal workforce), followed by Mexico (nearly 29 percent).7 Pressure for overwork is also high in some Asian countries. In Japan the term karoshi means death from overwork. Working very long hours can cause death due to stroke, heart attack, cerebral haemorrhage or other sudden causes.8 Even from an economic perspective, overwork is generally counterproductive, as it undermines labour productivity. Shorter and flexible working hours may be beneficial from both a human development perspective and an economic perspective.
Workers’ satisfaction and happiness Workers’ satisfaction and happiness are critical elements in ensuring a stronger link between work and human development. But the work– satisfaction–happiness nexus is not simple and straightforward. Yes, being out of work reduces happiness. For example, in the United Kingdom the relationship between unemployment and lower subjective well-being is well established across a range of measures, including lower life satisfaction,
Workers’ satisfaction and happiness are critical elements in ensuring a stronger link between work and human development
BOX 1.2 Measures of quality of work At the regional level the European Council proposed a portfolio of 18 statistical indicators in 2011 to measure job quality, and the European Trade Union Institute developed the Quality of Jobs Index in 2008.1 Eurofound has established the European Working Conditions Survey.2 A dashboard of indicators has been proposed to measure progress towards the International Labour Organization decent work agenda.3 Each of these endeavours has been challenged by intense debates among workers, employers and governments on conceptualizing employment quality and agreeing on objectives. There are questions of different priorities for workers and employers, as well as whether to focus on individual workers, the regulatory environment or the nature of jobs. Existing measures draw attention to the need for policies to enhance the quality of employment, particularly when trends in employment quality are depicted, as in the case of the Eurofound reports. Noting that
simple indicators that summarize only a few variables are typically most successful in conveying information to policymakers, some entities (such as the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe) have proposed a global Quality of Employment Indicator, based on dimensions including income, degree of formality, participation in social security systems, duration of contracts and availability of training.4 While composite measures like this inevitably leave out some dimensions of work quality, they can convey the urgency of employment-quality issues to policymakers and be used to advocate for more systematic data collection on elements of work quality. At the same time, additional steps can be taken—as has been done by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce through the employment quality index it has constructed—to identify, assess and diagnose the causes of poor job quality, which can vary by national, local and even workplace context.5
Notes 1. ETUI 2015. 2. Eurofound 2013. 3. ILO 2012a. 4. UNECE Expert Group on Measuring Quality of Employment 2012. 5. Tal 2015. Source: Human Development Report Office.
Chapter 1 Work and human development—analytical links | 35