Does working long hours cause marital dissolution? Evidence from the reduction in South Korea's workweek standard

Long working hours, work-life imbalance, and poor mental health: a cross-sectional mediation analysis based on the sixth Korean Working Conditions Survey, 2020-2021

Background There has been growing concern about the negative mental health impact of long working hours and overwork. Our study examined how work-life imbalance (WLI) could be a mediator between working hours and poor mental well-being.Methods We included 34,968 individuals from a nationwide cross-sectional survey in Korea. Self-reported working hours per week was collected, and mental health was assessed by the WHO-5 Well-Being Index. Counterfactual-based mediation models were employed to disentangle the total effects into a direct effect (work hour - poor mental health) and an indirect effect (work hour - WLI - poor mental health).Results Out of 34,968 participants, 52.6% worked 35-40 h/week, 20.0% worked 41-48 h/week, 11.7% worked 49-54 h/week, and 15.6% worked ≥55 h/week. The odds ratios (ORs) of the total impact of working hours on poor mental health were 1.08 (95% CI: 1.01-1.16) for 41-48 h/week, 1.28 (1.17-1.39) for 49-54 h/week, and 1.60 (1.48-1.74) for ≥55 h/week in comparison to 35-40 h/week. The ORs of the indirect effects were 1.04 (1.03-1.05) for 41-48 h/week, 1.08 (1.07-1.09) for 49-54 h/week, and 1.14 (1.12-1.16) for ≥55 h/week, accounting for 51%, 31%, and 28% of the total effects.Conclusion: Our findings suggest that WLI can partially mediate the association of long working hours with mental health deterioration. Policy efforts are required to mitigate the adverse mental health effects of overwork.

Differential impacts of reduced worktime on work-life balance in Korea

This study analyzes the heterogenous effects of reducing weekly work hour on workers' quality of life in Korea. Using longitudinal household data from the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS) from 2001 to 2017, this study aims to shed light on how the work hour reduction policy may differently affect workers with different levels of resources and support by demographic and socioeconomic status. Our estimates from the difference-in-differences approach exploiting the staggered implementation of the work hour reduction policy indicate that the policy increased leisure satisfaction of female workers with low educational level and female workers in regular or inflexible work setting. Given Korea's exceedingly long working hours and inequities in the labor market, a better understanding of the complex factors that affect work-life balance can be helpful in developing policies supportive of healthy work-life balance for workers. This study, to our knowledge, is the first to investigate the composition of workers in the Korean labor market and examine differential impacts of the workhour reduction policy by demographic and socioeconomic status.