The Relationship Between Subjective Well-Being and Work–Life Balance Among Labourers in Pakistan

The aim of this paper is to explore the importance of work–life balance in human life and how job characteristics affect overall well-being. Our data have been collected from the labour market in five major industrial estates in Pakistan, such as M3-industrial estate, Sundar industrial estate, Sindh industrial trading estate, Gawadar industrial estate, and Hayatabad industrial estate, using a stratified sampling technique. The data have been collected via questionnaire, and included demographic data (sex, age, education, number of children, marital status, and regional background), job characteristics (working hours per week), health, education, and monthly nominal income (in absolute terms) of the sample labourers. A regression model has been developed to check the association of well-being with socio-economic status as well as job characteristics of the labourer. We observed that a fair work-family life balance plays a positive and significant role in overall well-being, apart from socio-economic characteristics like health, education and income of a labourer. Policy makers should hence put more emphasis on favorable working hours to ensure greater happiness and better quality of life.