1. Introduction
The increase in non-regular workers is not exclusive to a specific country. On the contrary, it is a becoming increasingly common within many advanced countries around the world. Particularly in Korea, the number of non-regular workers has increased ever since the financial crisis, and the increase in the number of these types of workers and conditions under which they work is recognized as the biggest problem in our society. The proportion of non-regular workers in Korea is 36.3%, accounting for one-third of all wage earners [
1], and the proportion of temporary workers with less than one year of employment is also 24.4%, double the OECD average of 11.8%. According to OECD (2020), it is likely even higher than officially reported [
2]. This shows that the employment environment of Korea’s labor market is quite unstable compared to other OECD countries.
The concept of non-regular workers does not have a uniform definition internationally and is used in various ways according to the history and conditions of each country [
3]. The European Union defines it based on objective forms of employment, while the United States centers its definition around employment instability. Australia’s definition hinges on the presence of legal protection for workers, and Japan’s definition focuses on intra-company treatment, with an emphasis on discrimination in working conditions [
4]. Looking at the dictionary definition in Korea, non-regular workers are defined as positions or jobs that do not receive guarantees that regular workers receive in terms of working methods, duration, and continuity of employment, and refer to contract workers, temporary workers, and daily workers. In this dictionary sense, regular workers can be defined as workers who work full-time, have an unlimited contract period, and have stable employment, whereas a non-regular worker can be defined as a worker who works for a short time, has a finite labor contract, and has unstable employment.
Temporary workers are more likely to receive lower wages than regular workers, and they are more likely to have unstable earnings due to the flexible working contract period [
5]. According to Statistics Korea (2020) data [
1], the average monthly wage of domestic workers by employment type is 3.23 million won for regular workers and 1.71 million won for non-regular workers, showing significant differences between groups. There is also a difference in working hours. According to data from the Ministry of Employment and Labor (2020) [
6], the average monthly working hours by employment type is reported to be 165 h for regular workers and 112 h for non-regular workers. This gap can directly or indirectly lead to a difference in the leisure life of both types of workers and is expected to affect leisure life satisfaction.
For workers, leisure is very important for the reproduction of the workforce. Lack of leisure and an unsatisfactory leisure life not only lead to an accumulation of fatigue at work and reduced productivity, but are highly likely to lower the quality of life. According to a number of previous studies, it was found that satisfaction with leisure life acts as a major antecedent factor in enhancing self-efficacy and job satisfaction, enhancing happiness, and improving quality of life [
7,
8,
9,
10,
11]. These facts show that leisure life satisfaction plays an important role in an individual’s life.
On the other hand, it is reported that leisure life satisfaction is affected by various factors such as individual demographic factors, workplace factors, and leisure resource factors. Sevin, Koyuncu, and Baldiran (2020) [
12] found that there was a difference in leisure satisfaction according to gender and age. In the case of gender, females were more satisfied with leisure than males, and, for those in their 40s, 30s, 20s, and 50s, leisure satisfaction was higher in that order. A study by Yasartürk, Akyüz, and Gönülates (2019) [
13] found that leisure satisfaction increased with increasing income. In addition, the higher the education level, the higher the satisfaction with leisure [
14], and the group with a spouse showed higher satisfaction with leisure [
15]. These study results show that demographic factors influence leisure life satisfaction, suggesting the need to control demographic characteristics in a research model that explains leisure life satisfaction.
Occupational types, length of service, and working hours have been reported as workplace factors affecting leisure life satisfaction. Kang Eun-Na (2016) [
14] revealed that there is a difference in leisure satisfaction according to the type of job and working hours. In the case of occupation, it was found that office workers had higher leisure satisfaction than non-office workers, and, as working hours decreased, leisure satisfaction was higher. In the study of Choi Seund-Mook (2020) [
16], it was found that the group working fewer than 40 h a week had higher leisure satisfaction than the group working more than 40 h a week in comparison to the leisure satisfaction difference between the groups who worked fewer than 52 h and those who worked over 52 h. In addition, the higher the job security, the higher the satisfaction with leisure [
17], and the length of service [
18] and the degree of work–leisure balance [
19] made a difference in leisure satisfaction.
Leisure time and leisure expenses are reported as leisure resource factors that affect leisure life satisfaction. Kim Soo-Ah and Kim Nam-Jo (2020) [
20] revealed that leisure satisfaction increases as more leisure time is available on weekdays and spending on leisure life activities increases. In the study of Jong-Soon Kim, Se-Sook Oh, and So-Young Yoon (2016) [
21], it was found that, with the greater amount of leisure time on weekdays, the more leisure time perceived, and the higher the satisfaction with leisure expenses one was spending, the higher the satisfaction with leisure. In the study by Ji-Myung Yang, Young-Geum Jung, and So-Young Yoon (2017) [
22], it was also found that the more one perceived that one’s leisure time and leisure expenses were sufficient, the higher the leisure satisfaction was. In addition, leisure life satisfaction is closely related to psychological factors such as serious leisure, leisure motivation, leisure attitude, and leisure constraints [
23,
24,
25,
26,
27].
In summary, the above studies are meaningful in that they revealed factors affecting leisure life satisfaction from various perspectives. However, although there are many studies on specific age groups such as millennials, the middle-aged, and the elderly [
14,
15,
20,
22,
28], research on workers is relatively scarce, and, in particular, it is difficult to find a study analyzing the factors affecting leisure life satisfaction according to the employment type of workers.
Therefore, this study intends to analyze the factors affecting workers’ satisfaction with leisure life. In particular, based on a previous study [
29], there is a difference in participation in leisure activities according to employment type; regular and non-regular workers are used as comparative groups to analyze factors affecting leisure life satisfaction. Specifically, the purpose of this study is to set demographic characteristics such as gender, age, education level, income, marital status, etc. as control variables, and to examine their relative influence on leisure life satisfaction, including workplace factors and leisure resource factors. These efforts are expected to provide empirical evidence in terms of social and policy-level aspects to enhance the sustainability and satisfaction of leisure life for regular and non-regular workers in Korea by identifying the factors affecting leisure satisfaction according to the employment type of workers and their relative influence. Based on the trends of the studies presented so far, this study set the following research questions:
First, what are the main factors affecting the leisure life satisfaction of regular workers and their relative influence?
Second, what are the main factors affecting the leisure life satisfaction of non-regular workers and their relative influence?
4. Discussion
The objective of this study is to provide an empirical basis, in terms of social and policy-level aspects, to enhance the sustainability and satisfaction of leisure life for regular and non-regular workers in Korea by identifying the factors affecting leisure satisfaction according to the employment type of workers and their relative influence. To this end, using national statistical data from the ‘2019 National Leisure Activities Survey’, the demographic factors, workplace factors, and leisure resource factors of respondents were sequentially inputted, a model was constructed, and a hierarchical regression analysis was performed. The discussion of the research results is as follows.
First, the demographic factors that had a significant effect on leisure life satisfaction for both regular and non-regular workers were marital status and income. This result supports a previous study that older people with a spouse have higher leisure satisfaction [
14], and it is in line with a study that, the higher the income, the higher the leisure satisfaction [
12]. Among the workplace factors, working hours were found to act as an influencing factor on leisure life satisfaction, and, as working hours decreased, leisure life satisfaction increased. These results show that the working hours of middle-aged and elderly people participating in economic activities have a negative (−) effect on leisure satisfaction [
13], and the group working 40 h or less per week was compared with the group working more than 40 h and less than 52 h per week. This supports the study of Choi Seung-Mook (2020) [
16] who observed higher leisure satisfaction compared to the 52 h overtime group. In the leisure resource factor, it was found that weekday leisure time had a significant effect on leisure life satisfaction, and, as the weekday leisure time increased, leisure life satisfaction increased. These research results support previous studies [
19,
20] that revealed the positive relationship between leisure time on weekdays and leisure satisfaction. As described above, there are great social implications implicit in how marital status, income, working hours, and leisure time on weekdays act as influence factors on the leisure life satisfaction of regular and non-regular workers. In particular, it seems that policy efforts are needed to increase the leisure life satisfaction of low-wage workers and long-time workers.
Second, the factor that had the greatest influence on the leisure life satisfaction of regular and non-regular workers was the leisure resource factor. The leisure resource factor increases or decreases satisfaction with leisure life depending on the level of time and cost for leisure life. Weekday leisure time was found to be the most influential variable affecting leisure life satisfaction. This shows the possibility of weekday leisure time as a variable that most representatively explains the leisure life satisfaction of regular and non-regular workers. Kim Jong-Soon, Oh Se-Suk, and Yoon So-Young (2016) [
21] also support the results of this study by reporting that, among the leisure resource factors such as weekday leisure time, desired weekday leisure time, holiday leisure time, desired holiday leisure time, average monthly leisure cost, and desired average monthly leisure cost, weekday leisure time has the greatest impact on leisure life satisfaction. On the other hand, it can be seen that this result is organically linked with the result that working hours act as a significant variable for both regular and non-regular workers among the workplace factors. Therefore, in order to increase the satisfaction of Korean workers with their leisure life, above all, social and policy-level efforts are needed to guarantee leisure time on weekdays through a reduction in working hours and flexible working hours.
Recently, various efforts are being made in Korean society to guarantee workers’ leisure time and create a healthy leisure society. In 2015, the National Leisure Activation Framework Act was enacted to legally recognize people’s right to leisure activities [
35], and the Labor Standards Act was revised in 2018 to gradually implement the 52 h workweek system. As a result of these policy efforts, positive changes are being observed in workers’ leisure lives [
36].
The second most influential variable on leisure life satisfaction after weekday leisure time was the number of days used for vacation in the case of regular employees. Moreover, in the case of non-regular workers, the second most influential variable was leisure expenses, and it was found that leisure life satisfaction increased as leisure expenses increased. This means that, in the case of regular workers, the work environment rather than material resources is a big variable affecting leisure life satisfaction, whereas, in the case of non-regular workers, physical resources have a greater influence. Therefore, in order to increase the satisfaction of regular workers with their leisure life, companies need to actively encourage the use of vacation time and create a work environment in which they can freely use their vacation time. Relevant policies, such as support, will be needed.
5. Conclusions
This study empirically analyzed which factors affect the leisure life satisfaction of regular and non-regular workers in Korea, and which of those factors are relatively important, and the following conclusions were drawn.
First, the determinants of the leisure life satisfaction of Korean regular workers are weekday leisure time, number of days used for vacation, whether the five-day workweek is implemented, leisure time on holidays, and working hours.
Second, the determinants of the leisure life satisfaction of Korean non-regular workers are weekday leisure time, leisure expenses, and working hours.
Finally, we would like to clarify the limitations of this study. The ‘National Leisure Activity Survey’ comprises data collected from households across the country, and, although it comprises nationally representative data, there is a limit to generalizing the research results to all regular and non-regular workers. In addition, this study examined the factors affecting the leisure life satisfaction of regular and non-regular workers through a cross-sectional data analysis. In a follow-up study, if we analyze how factors affecting leisure life satisfaction change with the passage of time through a longitudinal study, this would clearly have great significance in relation to the work being carried out in this field of research. In addition, there remains a limitation to this study in that there was no choice but to select limited variables due to the limitations of panel data. Ultimately, there is the possibility of variables which exist that can better explain disparities in leisure life satisfaction that have not been included in this analysis. Therefore, it is clear that a follow-up study which considers other variables as factors influencing leisure life satisfaction is necessary.