Gig Workers’ Quality of Life (QoL) and Psychological Well-Being in Service Delivery Platform

Abstract

The study aims to determine the understanding and perception of working conditions perceived by platform workers in terms of work/life balance and the quality of life. In addition, this current study empirically analyzes their perception on the structural relationship amongst work and life balance and the quality of life. The study uses quality of life and work/life balance to build a conceptual model, and questionnaires were collected through an online survey of 447 gig workers using a convenience sampling method. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was employed to investigate the adequacy of the measurement model, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed along with the maximum likelihood method to examine relationships amongst the seven constructs in the proposed model. The study results show there were statistically significant values in five paths (working environment → overall QOL; leisure domain → overall QOL; economic domain → overall QOL; emotional domain → overall QOL; and overall QOL → psychological well-being), except for ‘social support → overall QoL’. It was found that the economic and emotional factors that belong to the life domain had more impact on the overall quality of life than the components of the ‘work category’. Implications for future research and the work environment perceived by gig workers for the platform market are discussed.