Cross-national relationships between employment quality and mental well-being: The role of organized labour strength

Abstract

Existing literature underscores the significant influence of organized labour on shaping national contexts, not only in terms of labour market regulation but also on redistributive policies impacting population health. We investigate how employment quality (EQ), mental well-being, and their relation are influenced by broader socio-political factors across Europe, employing a Power Resource Theory (PRT) approach. We first establish an EQ typology using Latent Class Cluster Analysis on data from the European Working Conditions Survey (2015, N = 25,682), deriving five EQ configurations: SER-like, Instrumental, Precarious Intensive, Precarious Unsustainable, and Portfolio employment. Our analyses reveal key insights. First, EQ types are significantly associated with mental well-being at the individual level. Second, we find that the strength of organized labour, measured by Trade Union Density (TUD) and Collective Bargaining Coverage (CBC), significantly influences the distribution of EQ configurations across Europe. Third, higher CBC levels are associated with greater mental well-being across countries. Lastly, CBC modulates the relationship between EQ and mental well-being, as the negative association of Precarious Intensive employment with mental well-being is weaker in countries with higher collective bargaining coverage. Our study highlights the role of organized labour in the prevalence of standard and precarious employment, as well as in employment-related mental well-being inequalities.