Wang, S, Kamerāde, D, Bessa, I orcid.org/0000-0003-2984-746X et al. (4 more authors) (2022) The Impact of Reduced Working Hours and Furlough Policies on Workers’ Mental Health at the Onset of COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Study. Journal of Social Policy. ISSN 0047-2794
Abstract
Although reduced working time and furlough policy initiatives are widely regarded as important for economic and business reasons, little is known about their impacts on workers’ mental health at the onset of COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from the UK Household Longitudinal Panel Study data from 2018 to February 2020 and April 2020 and change score analysis, this study aims to compare mental health changes between those who worked reduced hours, were furloughed and left/lost paid work. The results suggest that at the onset of COVID-19 reduced working time and furlough can protect workers’ mental health, but only for men not for women. The gender differences remain significant even after controlling for housework and childcare responsibilities at the onset of COVID-19. These results highlight the importance of distributing paid work more equitably and formulating gender-sensitive labour market policies in protection of workers’ mental health.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | COVID- pandemic; working time reduction; furlough; unemployment; gender |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Business (Leeds) > Work and Employment Relation Division (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 13 Jul 2022 12:34 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2023 23:02 |
Status: | Published online |
Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
Identification Number: | 10.1017/S0047279422000599 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:188643 |