Praca człowieka jest społecznie użyteczna. Oznacza to, że społeczeństwo ma wobec osoby pracującej obowiązek zapewnienia życia godnego. Wymaga to także zagwarantowania określonego poziomu przychodów. ...W związku z tym wynagrodzenie godziwe należy się nie tylko pracownikowi, lecz także każdej osobie pracującej zarobkowo, zwłaszcza gdy nie zatrudnia ona innych do wykonywania pracy.
Occupational stress is associated with numerous health problems that cost organisations considerable resources. We explore whether the detrimental effects of stress on individual health are ...accompanied by productive effects on individual performance for self‐employed people, thereby making stress somewhat “worth it” for this occupational group. Given that positive affect can serve as a stress‐buffering resource, we also examine the potential for positive affect (PA) to moderate these relationships. Our hypotheses are tested using data from the NHANES I Epidemiologic Follow‐up Study (NHEFS) that incorporated extensive demographic, medical history, nutritional, clinical, and laboratory data representative of the non‐institutionalised civilian US population. From this dataset we created a longitudinal matched sample of 688 self‐employed individuals and 688 employees, incorporating self‐reported and physiological measures of stress and health. Our findings indicate that (controlling for past income and prior health) self‐employed people experience greater stress than employees, and they experience a positive impact of stress on income despite a negative impact on physical health. These relationships are moderated by positive affectivity, where PA accentuates the positive effect of stress on personal income and mitigates the negative effect of stress on physical health.
Drawing from the social study of the gig economy and platform labour and from the sociology of risk, this article explores how on-demand food couriers in Edinburgh, Scotland, construct and represent ...work-related risks. By taking the gig economy’s contested and contentious status of ‘self-employment’ as a starting point, this article positions couriers as experts of their own work process and draws on in-depth interviews with 25 couriers to illustrate how platformed labour creates a range of risks, including physical risk and bodily harm, financial risks and epistemic risks. To negotiate these risks, couriers use a range of strategies, including privatising, normalising and minimising risks and by forging new communities of support. While some risks can be negotiated by recourse to the private, entrepreneurial, or ‘choosing’ self, interview data illustrate how algorithmically managed work creates uncertainty and confounds the issue of choice by obscuring the work process and associated risk probabilities.
Human capital theory – developed by neoclassical economists like Gary Becker and Theodore Schultz – is widely considered a useful way to explain how employees might enhance their value in ...organizations, leading to improved skill, autonomy and socio-economic wellbeing. This essay argues the opposite. Human capital theory implies that employees should bear the costs (and benefits) of their investment. Highly individualized training and work practices are an inevitable corollary. Self-employment, portfolio careers, the ‘gig economy’ and on-demand business models (including Uber and Deliveroo) faithfully reflect the assumptions that inform human capital theory. I term this the radical responsibilization of the workforce and link it to growing economic insecurity, low productivity, diminished autonomy and worrying levels of personal debt. The essay concludes by proposing some possible solutions.
Changing economic ideologies and a new emphasis on entrepreneurial opportunities have led to a rise in self‐employment in Canada, especially among women. Although some people benefit from ...self‐employment, it is considered to be a precarious form of employment. Despite a growing body of literature on gender and self‐employment, there is more to learn about its precarious nature across industries and types of entrepreneurs. This ethnographic study examines the experiences of self‐employed nurses in order to better understand self‐employment in professional caring work. In some ways, these nurses' experiences fit with what is known about female self‐employment but this specific sector highlights how precariousness can take different forms across different areas of work. In particular, this study reveals new insights about the complexity and ambiguity of precariousness.
The present research focuses upon new businesses which are started from scratch. The theories of reasoned action and planned behavior are used to formulate hypotheses concerning self-employment ...intentions and subsequent entry into self-employment. The hypotheses are tested using longitudinal data from 297 Norwegian business founders. The results suggest that salient beliefs concerning self-employment determine attitudes toward self-employment, that attitude and subjective norm determine intentions to become self-employed, and that intentions to become self-employed determine actual entry into self-employment. The findings strongly support the theory of reasoned action, but provide no support for the extension of the theory represented by the theory of planned behavior.
This study examines the self-employment behavior of artists. Using data from the Current Population Survey between 2003 and 2015, we estimate a series of logit models to predict transitions from paid ...employment to self-employment in the arts. The results show that artists disproportionately freelance and frequently switch in and out of self-employment compared to all other professional workers. We also find that artists exhibit unique entrepreneurial profiles, particularly in terms of their demographic and employment characteristics. In particular, artist workers are considerably more likely to attain self-employment status when living in a city with a high saturation of artist occupations.
Urban and regional research has focused on opportunity entrepreneurship and how cities can promote growth through the ‘right’ type of entrepreneurship. This neglects the increasing risk of precarious ...self-employment reflected in the compositional change of self-employment towards self-employment with no employees (‘solo self-employment’). This article tests whether precarious self-employment is more prevalent in urban areas, in parallel to more entrepreneurial forms as shown in previous research. Based on the European Working Conditions Survey 2015 and including 30 countries, it proposes a multidimensional empirical framework of precariousness of self-employment. Findings show significant variations in the prevalence of precarious self-employment in urban versus non-urban areas across geographical regions. Some individual characteristics (gender) and job-related characteristics (industry and working at home) are related with an increased risk of precariousness in urban areas. Policies therefore need to go beyond regulatory and legal frameworks and target local conditions of self-employment.
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