Effect of Statutory Working Hour Reduction on the Willingness of Holding Second Job

Workers are normally expecting reasonable statutory working hours. Along with the reduction in statutory hours, a certain proportion of workers are however dual job holders. It is the so-called moonlighting phenomenon, meaning people working in the main job during the day and doing a second job at night. Taiwan has long been ranked top among the world's longest working hours. A higher working time could more or less compress the space for workers to work in two jobs. However, since 2001, Taiwan has changed the statutory working hours twice. Because the statutory hours have been reduced nowadays and the overtime regulations become stricter, the room for holding second job could have been increased. It is thus wondering whether the change in statutory working hours in Taiwan lead to moonlight effects?In this project, the “Manpower Utilization Survey”1984 to 2016 data will be used for empirical analysis, a time period between the launch of the Labor Standard Law and the second reduction in statutory working hours. The difference-in-difference methodology is employed, along with probit model specification, aiming to investigate the impact of statutory working hour reduction on people’s willingness of holding dual job. In addition, we will use a bivariate probit model to account for the overtime effect so as to obtain consistent estimation results. Moreover, differences in the moonlight effect among workers of various characteristics such as educational level, occupations and industry, will also be analyzed which help exposit the causes of moonlighting. It is noticed that multi-skilled is the demand tendency in the labor market. Holding a second job might assist people gain second expertise. The stagnancy in real wages might further contribute to the plausibility of holding dual jobs. As a consequence, based on economic and non-economic considerations, the willingness of Taiwanese workers to accept a second job should no longer be the same as before. The findings of this study can be used as a reference for the policy of working hour in Taiwan, and can be put forward to relevant policy suggestions accordingly.