It won't surprise many people but it may annoy some. International research has shown that self-employed people are happier at work than the employed.
Why will this fact annoy some people? Because the idea of self-employment is deeply confronting to people who are wedded to traditional ideas of labour regulation. These ideas maintain that workers are always powerless and always under the control of bosses.
Self-employed people are in fact independent. They control themselves and their work. They are businesses of "one" and their own boss. Oddly, this idea is offensive to many with an ideological commitment to the politics of the "wage slave". Some union officials even declare that independent contracting is always a sham.
And when research shows that the self-employed are happier at work than employees, even the labour regulators can react with denial.
There's a simple explanation.
Self-employed people are independent contractors. What distinguishes them from employees is that they earn their living using the commercial contract instead of the employment contract.
These two forms of contract are starkly different and are regulated differently.
Regulation under employment contracts makes lawful the fixing of labour prices and allows for monopoly control of labour arrangements. That's what industrial agreements effectively do.
However, regulation of commercial contracts forbids price control and monopoly creation -- this is a result of the Trade Practices Act, for example.
When an individual works under a commercial contract they must accept that they cannot collude with other individuals to fix prices. Employees, however, organise with unions to force businesses to pay set prices.
Unions say that self-employed people compete with, and undermine, the ability of employees to fix labour prices. Consequently, independent contractors are seen as a threat to unions' political power. This explains unions' suspicion and even hatred of independent contractors.
But with a surprising 28 per cent of the private-sector workforce in Australia now working as independent contractors, this is a movement that cannot be ignored. And this shift to independence at work is world-wide.
The research on happiness -- "Being Independent Raises Happiness at Work", comes from Zurich University in Switzerland and was published in the Swedish Economic Policy Review.
The research was undertaken in response to the recognition of the global rise of independent contractors.
It is based on a 23-country survey supplemented by further detailed attitudinal surveys from several European countries.
The key findings show that greater happiness has a direct link to greater independence and autonomy.
This happens even though independent contractors earn, on average, marginally less than employees.
Further, employees looking for happiness at work value the same work characteristics as enjoyed by the self-employed.
And the findings are the same across different cultures.
The researchers say this has important implications for economic theory and government policy.
The findings force a rethink in the standard economic concepts of human wellbeing. They unsettle the idea that price is everything in economic activity.
People put a non-monetary value on being independent. This is similar to the value people put on democracy.
Consequently, governments have to take a radically different approach to self-employment because most often government policies discriminate against the self-employed. This happens in many different ways.
The NSW Government, for example, recently sued independent contractors for workers compensation premiums when they subcontracted work to other independent contractors. Yet all of Australia's workers compensation schemes ban self-employed individuals from registering in the schemes.
In addition, considerable numbers of employed people aspire to be self-employed.
The researchers refer to this as latent entrepreneurship that, if released, holds the prospect of increased creative economic activity. They reason that, with changes in technology and production organisation, more self-employment is likely.
For independent contractors the research is no surprise. Being independent at work is normally the result of a conscious decision, frequently made for lifestyle purposes, often to achieve a better family-work mix.
People seek the satisfaction of being their own boss, but it should not be assumed that independent contracting is work perfection. In fact, being self-employed can be hard work. You have clients to look after rather than an employer who is supposed to look after you. You sometimes work for nothing in the hope of picking up new business. In effect, you make an investment in your own belief in yourself and it is this self-belief that produces a marginal increase in work happiness.
That this is treated with disdain by some unions and regulators is unfortunate -- it is a human approach to work that should be welcome.
ADVERTISEMENT
No comments:
Post a Comment