new characteristics of inequalities in the information society and ...

ISSN: 2247-6172;
ISSN-L: 2247-6172
Review of Applied Socio- Economic Research
(Volume 5, Issue 1/ 2013 ), pp. 94
URL: http://www.reaser.eu
e-mail: editors@reaser.eu
time. The fifth EWCS covered EU27 member states, Norway, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia, Turkey, Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo (www.eurofound.europa.eu). The survey
questionnaire comprises now 13 topics, each topic being assigned between 5 and 12 questions. Within this
paper, data on answers to 12 questions covering 7 dimensions of the quality of work were extracted, both for
2005 and 2010, from EWCS database available on Eurofound website. Extracted data cover EU27 countries,
plus Norway, Croatia, Turkey and Switzerland in 2005 and EU27, Norway, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Albania, and Montenegro in 2010. Table 1 presents selected themes and
questions and response categories.
Table 1 Dimensions of the quality of work and their indicators
Dimension
Indicator
Job context I might lose my job in the next 6 months (Agree) (%)
Working time How many hours do you usually work per week in your main paid job? (less than 30) (%)
Working time How many hours do you usually work per week in your main paid job? (more than 40)
(%)
Working time How many times a month do you work in the evening, for at least 2 hours between 6.00
pm and 10.00 pm? (once or more) (%)
Working time Normally, how many times a month do you work at night, for at least 2 hours between
10.00 pm and 05.00 am? (once or more) (%)
Working time How many times a month do you work in the weekend? (index) (once or more) (%)
Work intensity Job involves working to tight deadlines (At least a quarter of the time) (%)
Health and well-being Do you think your health or safety is at risk because of your work? (yes) (%)
Career prospects My job offers good prospects for career advancement (agree) (%)
Job fulfilment Very satisfied or satisfied with working conditions in your main paid job? (%)
Job fulfilment I am well paid for the work I do (agree) (%)
Work-life balance
In general, working hours fit in with family or social commitments outside work very well
or well (%)
Four well-known composite indicators were considered for the assessment of the quality of life:
Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Quality of Life Index (calculated for 2005), Satisfaction With Life Scale
(SWLS, available for 2006), OECD Life Satisfaction indicator (extracted for 2009 from OECD database)
and Human Development Index (HDI, available both for 2005 and 2010). Apart from OECD Life
Satisfaction Indicator, which misses data for 10 countries, all other three indicators of the quality of life
totally cover the samples.
Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Quality of Life Index
The Economist Intelligence Unit has developed, in 2005, a “quality of life” index based on a
methodology that links the results of subjective life-satisfaction surveys to the objective determinants of the
quality of life across 111 countries (EIU, p. 1). The index is determined on the basis of 9 factors
corresponding to nine groups of indicators, as follows: healthiness – life expectancy at birth (in years);
family life – divorce rate (per 1000 population), converted into index of 1 (lowest divorce rates) to 5
(highest); community life – variable taking value 1 if country has either high rate of church attendance or
trade-union membership, zero otherwise; material well being – GDP per person, at PPP in $; political
stability and security – political stability and security ratings; climate and geography – latitude, to
distinguish between warmer and colder climates; job security – unemployment rate (%); political freedom –
average of indexes of political and civil liberties, scale of 1 (completely free) to 7 (unfree); gender equality –
measured using ratio of average male and female earnings (EIU, 2006, p. 2).
Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS)
In 2006 Adrian G. White, an analytic social psychologist at the University of Leicester, analyzed data
published by UNESCO, the CIA, the New Economics Foundation, the WHO, the Veenhoven Database, the
Latinbarometer, the Afrobarometer, and the UNHDR, to create a global projection of subjective well-being: