Self-employment as a moderator of the relationship between work and life satisfaction

Purpose: The correlation between work and life satisfaction varies substantially across studies, suggesting that the strength of the relationship may depend on the studied population and its circumstances. The purpose of this paper is to assess the strength of the relationship in the context of Chile and the moderator effect of self-employment (SE), whether a worker is self-employed or on a salary.

Design/methodology/approach: Based on the idea that work plays a more central role in the life of a self-employed person than in that of a salaried worker, the authors hypothesized that the strength of the relationship between work and life satisfaction will be stronger for the former. The measures used in this study were part of a large questionnaire administered to investigate several characteristics of the Chilean population. The authors used multiple regression analysis to test the moderator effect of SE on the strength of the relationship between work satisfaction and life satisfaction.

Findings: The results from a national sample of 658 Chilean workers indicate that the relationship between work satisfaction and life satisfaction is positive. Furthermore, the relationship is stronger for self-employed workers than for salaried workers. The authors also found a small negative direct effect of SE on life satisfaction, which suggests that the self-employed might be, on average, less satisfied with their lives than their salaried counterparts.

Originality/value: The sample used in the current study was not only substantially larger in size but also more representative of the current workforce because it included both genders. Consequently, the results are more robust and generalizable.