Self-employment boosts satisfaction but reduces wages
Thursday, 13 Apr 2006 00:01
Self-employment boosts satisfaction but reduces wages
Being self-employed may increase job satisfaction, but it decreases wages and lengthens the working day, new research has shown.
Professor Simon Parker and Olufunmilola Ajaji-obe of the Durham Centre for Entrepreneurship, University of Durham, studied various employment statistics from both the US and UK and concluded that those in self-employment worked harder.
This was because of a perceived sense of insecurity about their work and a desire to toil for longer hours in order to ensure they provided for themselves and their families.
But the research, which was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, also concluded that those in self-employment were happier with their jobs, despite earning less per hour than their employed counterparts.
Citing his findings, Professor Parker believes that the government and policy-makers need to address the issue of benefits for self-employed people to make such a form of work more attractive.
"More than one in ten workers are self-employed in the UK, they employ a similar number of people and run most of the UK's firms," he said.
"This makes them a very important part of the overall labour market. The study has revealed a number of key findings that might make it easier for policy-makers to successfully promote entrepreneurship and self-employment."
Other findings to stem from the research include that women are no more likely to be self-employed now than they were in the 1990s and that male Britons, both self-employed and otherwise, respond to higher wages by working fewer hours.
The research was based on data from the British Household Panel Survey, the US Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the UK Retirement Survey.
