Nonstandard Employment, Job Quality, and Marital Instability in South Korea

• In Event: 20414 - Women's Labor Supply, Maintenance, Exit, and Consequences in Family

Abstract

A growing body of literature documents the potentially negative implications of nonstandard jobs—commonly associated with employment insecurity and poor job quality—on various family outcomes. However, our understanding of how nonstandard work affects marital instability remains limited. In this study, I fill this gap by examining the association between nonstandard work arrangements and the risk of divorce in South Korea, using nationally representative longitudinal data. Given South Korea’s rigid labor market segmentation and distinctive gender context, it provides an ideal setting to evaluate how nonstandard employment is related to marital instability across gender. Results from discrete-time hazards models indicate that nonstandard employment is associated with a higher likelihood of divorce for men, but not for women. Furthermore, using decomposition analysis, I evaluate the role of various indicators of job quality (e.g., low wages, the provision of social insurance, firm size) in marital instability. The findings show that job quality plays a significant role in explaining differences in marital instability between men with standard and nonstandard employment, accounting for more than three-fourths of the observed differences. This study provides valuable insights into the consequences of precarious work for family in South Korea, as well as in other countries experiencing rising employment precarity.

Author

• Sojung Lim, State University of New York at Buffalo