Jul 05, 2010 Posted by
Sumadi Samaraweera (Lecturer, Sabaragamuwa University)
An individual holding dual or multiple jobs is defined as moonlighting. Today, moonlighting has become a key strategy among individuals in many developed and developing countries, where high competition exists to achieve economic goals. Moonlighting occurs when people are willing to work more hours than that demanded by their primary job with its fixed hours of work.
The poor, facing absolute or relative poverty, are one key group who are willing to moonlight to uplift their living conditions while professionals are another group for whom moonlighting plays a significant role. There are positive and negative factors with respect to this moonlighting. On the one hand, moonlighting encourages low income workers to earn more through for example, self employment than they could achieve merely with their primary employment, hence it would serve to uplift the living conditions of their families.
Moonlighting then seems to be a good solution for enhancing the earning potential of the working poor in the labor market. On the other hand, however others argue that workers who moonlight grab the employment opportunities, particularly of newcomers to the job market, and contribute to the high unemployment problem that worsens poverty. Moonlighting could also lower the equilibrium wage, through expanding the labour supply relative to demand.
In Sri Lanka 9.1% of the total employed are moonlighters according to the (Samaraweera and Rathnayake, (to be published) calculation based on data from CFS 2003/04) of which the majority are male. In Sri Lanka, the highest moonlighting rates are recorded for the primary educated group followed by graduates. 13.7% of the employees in the agricultural sector are reported to be moonlighters while 5.8% of industrial workers are also engaged in dual or multiple jobs. The impacts of moonlighting on the working poor, the unemployment rate and the wage levels, are some of the key policy concerns. Some questions that arise in this context are:
Could the unemployment problem in Sri Lanka be reduced through prohibiting moonlighting?
How does the wage rate of primary jobs influence in moonlighting?
How does the moonlighting affect wages in secondary employment?
Does moonlighting really benefit the working poor?
How does this affect the non -monetary aspects such as leisure, family relationships etc.
Moonlighting by professionals is the other side of the coin. Many professionals are attached to government sector bodies in Sri Lanka. Moonlighting reduces the enthusiasm and dedication of professionals for their first job and the financial benefits of the second job encourage them to do more evening work. Poor people however may have more access to such professionals when they engage in their primary job. Examples such as accessing the services of a medical specialist in a government hospital or a teacher in a government school come to mind.
The issue that then arises is, would prohibiting secondary occupations improve the quantity and quality of services accessible to the poor or would it have the reverse effect? The latter argument in arises in particular, because moonlighting opportunities helps to keep professionals in the government sector even at relatively low wage rate. This enhances the services available to the poor. Yet moonlighting by professionals can in turn create inefficiency in their primary job leading to negative influences on the services provided, including for the poor. The debate here centers on the issue
Does professional moonlighting influence the poor? How does it affect?
How can the state intervene to ameliorate the influences of professional moonlighting on the poor?
I agree to the writer. why most people like to have multiple jobs is another issue. according to my personal idea this shows some socio economic situation of a country and a person. And also i think person who engages in multiple jobs will face some health constraints as well mainly psychosocial issues due to lack of time to rest. and they have less time to spend with their loved ones, to read a book, go to a cinema, listen to some music they prefer, most of us will get no time for those things. i personally think if you are a parent this will affect your children's as well. They hardly meet you or have a lovely conversation with you. what i can say is this will lead to some socio cultural issues and on the other hand this will definitely help you to improve your living standard find some extra money to spend for your children's education or send them abraod for further education and the person who can balance all at a good level will win from this battle. i am not going to comment much on does professional moonlighting influence the poor? but i think there is always two side of a issue. if a person have many many skills why not using them. it is always good to get some training and then involve in the work you prefer. let the others ( organizations, individuals etc) who need professional guidance to decide on whom to work
Athula Ranasinghe(University of Colombo)Says : 2010-07-10 07:04:02
First of all I must congratulate the author for highlighting a new dimension of the labour market in Sri Lanka. Moonlighting or multiple job holdings is becoming a prominent issue in SL as well as many other countries. Author has correctly identified the two groups of moonlighters in SL, the poor, less skilled workers and professional workers. Most of the arguments raised by the author are standard and relevant. One small point that the author has not stated is the case about professionals. One argument justifying the moonlighting by professionals is that the institutions where they are attached as first employees, cannot utilise the full capacity of such professionals. For example, potentials of a highly talented scientist employed in a university is always underutilised unless they are allowed to moonlight. Therefore, at high skill level, moonlighting increase the efficiency. The argument that the moonlighters always tend to neglect their responsibility over their first job is also valid. Should the moonlighting be accepted by law is the policy related issue. Considering the case of professionals described above one can argue that the expected negative impacts of moonlighting on their first job is a good reason to argue against it. Alternatively one can also argue that we should leave it to the place where they are employed in first job. In that case, challenges for HR managers will further increase. Another aspect of the story (though not directly linked with moonlighting) is the extension of service period of retired workers. In a sense this is also a very special type of moonlighting because they receive pension or other forms of retirement benefits from the first job and at the same time they also perform another job and earn from that. With the increasing problem of ageing population we would expect more and more this types of moonlighting in future.
Nisha Arunatilake(IPS)Says : 2010-07-12 01:40:02
The answer to the question, ‘Could the unemployment problem in Sri Lanka be reduced through prohibiting moonlighting?’, depends on the characteristics of the unemployed and the type of jobs available for moonlighters. The literature on the unemployment problem gives several hypotheses to explain unemployment in the country. The first of these, the skills mismatch hypothesis, states that individuals are unemployed as they do not have the skills necessary to do the jobs that they aspire to do. For example, a graduate may wish to join a bank, but may not have the necessary IT and language skills required for such as job. The second hypothesis states that the unemployed are those who wait to get formal sector jobs, usually in the public sector, which provide job security and other benefits. The third and last hypothesis states that the unemployment problem is created by slow job creation in the economy. Individuals who are unemployed for the first two reasons are unlikely to take up jobs that are open for moonlighters. If unemployment is created mainly due to the third reason, then limiting moonlighting may reduce unemployment. But, not all jobs are available for moonlighters. One will need more knowledge about the types of jobs done by moonlighters to better understand whether limiting moonlighting will reduce unemployment.
Nisha Arunatilake(IPS)Says : 2010-07-13 06:53:18
I agree with Athula that one problem is that the institutions that hire professional do not filly utilize their capacity, so that the professional feel obliged to work on a second job to satisfy professional aspirations. The issue is also a principal agent problem. The institutions that hire professionals (the principals) are unable to effectively monitor the performance of the professionals (the agents), they are also unable to adequately compensate the agents according to market rates. As a result the professionals do not have an incentive to perform well. Also, as often the first jobs of professionals are in the formal sector, where there is job security, the professionals are not worried about under performing. Better human resource management, better performance monitoring, provision of adequate compensation, and better accountability could improve the performance of the professionals in their first job as well as give them adequate income such that they can utilize their leisure fully, rather than having to work on a second job.
Nilakshi De Silva (Senior Professional , Centre for Poverty Analysis)Says : 2010-07-14 06:27:19
"Moonlighting reduces the enthusiasm and dedication of professionals for their first job ..". not sure if this is fully accurate. Do we have any kind of evidence for this assertion? if we believe people only work for the money, this may be true. But looking at our own situations, surely we know that money is not the only reason why we make job choices. On the contrary, having the financial security from the moonlighting may help professionals to reconcile themselves to the "limitations" of the first job. To me the first group that Sumadi speaks of is the more interesting: poor people who do more than one job. The impact of the second job may be different across sectors - for example secondary work is common in the agricultural sector because of the hours of work per day, seasonality etc. The question is how much of the decision is individual choice, and how much is necessity.
I wonder if it is possible to see moonlighting as a political strategy of the poor, not just to gain additional income, but to expand their economic space, quietly challenging the structures that disadvantage them. Squeezing the hours and compromising the quality of their formal sector jobs to do a second job in the informal sector, rather than say, sending their children out to work to earn more income, could be seen as a sort of individual activism against the formal system, as much as it is a means of improving living standards. This thought comes from reading Asef Bayat, whose work discusses the concept of ‘quiet encroachment’. It seems to me that this is what moonlighting is. (see Asef Bayat, 2000, From Dangerous Classes to Quiet Rebels:Politics of the Urban Subaltern in the Global South International Sociology, September 2000, Vol 15(3)pp 533–557. SAGE (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi)
Amala de Silva (Senior Lecturer , University of Colombo)Says : 2010-07-19 05:25:53
Moonlighting can adversely affect the poor because the willingness of some people to work extra hours increases the labour supply and hence would bring down wage levels. This may not be true at professional level where the market is likely to be more oligopolistic and hence fees or wages are likely to be artificially determined even involving collusion rather than market determined. Wages for both jobs in either case are likely to be influnenced by the moonlighting. In addition in some cases the first job may well be a major determinant in determining the degree/feasibility of moonlighting. This interdependence of wage determination and job holding makes the issue even more complex. This certainly is a very interesting and challenging issue: determining how moonlighting can optimize social welfare.
Aruna Shantha(Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka)Says : 2010-07-19 06:35:12
Since authorized organizations have been given less attention on moonlighting in Sri Lankan labour market, at the beginning, I must congratulate the author for attending new area in the labour market in SL. Author has perfectly identified different dimension in the moonlighting as well as benefit and limited adverse effects of moonlighting. Most of the arguments raised by author are relate to a labour market in Sri Lanka. I would like to examine some additional points for author’s attention and further improvement of this valuable effort. People working multiple jobs not only based on skilled and unskilled but also it come from just about every demographic group across all ages, races, genders, marital statuses, geographic locations and education levels in SL. The main reason for moonlighting in SL is financial hardship or as a way to improve their standard of living or they might work an additional job as a way of learning new skills of preparing for a career change. In many cases moonlighting in SL reflects the flexible work schedule of first employment, especially among government worker, but in many others it reflects growing economic hardship that threatens the financial stability of families. However in the private sector, since having quite tied working schedule and identical task for each day it reflects relatively less amount in moonlighting in SL. Cleary, financial pressures facing families have intensified in past three decades. Many families are striving to achieve a comfortable standard of living by increasing weekly hours of work and by additional income from working wives. So in economic point of view, moonlighting also reflects the imbalance between earning path and expenditure path of Sri Lankan households during last three decades and moonlighting is a another effort that use to achieve stable living condition .However these practices give rise to issues with productivity, physical and mental health problems as a results of the stress of jugging multiple tasks and most importantly, may lead to conflict of interests between a moonlighters different positions. So, whatever reasons employees have for moonlighting, this practice can have adverse effects on both employers and employees. Beside author could analysis the direct relation ship between moonlighting and underemployment in SL. Since underemployment is the one of root course for moonlighting, policy markers needed to given necessary attention to minimize underemployment and thereby it leads to reduce moonlighting. A certain group of Sri Lankan workers will always need to work multiple jobs just to sustain some basic standard of living, but whatever reasons for moonlighting they should look at the benefit and risk that will generate through moonlighting. Moonlighting will support for yielding financial benefit but it will damage to social well being.
W.A Senathissa(Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka)Says : 2010-07-22 12:05:30
One of the valuable efforts by author, for seeking new trend of labour market and how it can be converted to the effective labour market. Author has examined clearly the concept of moonlighting in a good aspect and clear view. I would like to add a feedback to further improvement of this aspect. Moonlighting is a term, referred to holding a second job apart from the usual working hours with the purpose of having some financial befits. In the context of examining this social aspect, it is better to categorize working population the whole world into two groups as educated-skilled rich people and Less educated-skilled poor people which I prefer to name as Group “A” and “B” respectively for easy description. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, about 7 to 8 million Americans, about 5+ percent of all workers are engaging with multiple jobs. This concept make quit differed developing countries and little bit far from its meaning, because majority of the people who are living in developing nations has fallen into group B, why I said that considerable proportion of people (specially in the informal sector) are not occupied in one permanent job. Within a short period they have to change their employment sources. In other words they don’t have any fixed jobs, even though some people who used to engage in the job more than their fixed hours whether they have been paid or not. Speaking about the psychological aspect with the real world, love, affection, harmony and peace are not to be seen with the extreme poor condition. Without having at least two meals per day how do they lead their life with those feelings? They have to survive with numerous day to day problems very often, because life is not an angel’s palace. It is true that in the past, this was not a huge problem because they have got used to fulfill their basic needs all by them selves in their living environment. Therefore at the present condition, people can not be satisfied with the basic income level if they want to lead a healthy wealthy and a harmonious life. It is true that and agree with the author, moonlighting is one of the sources to reduce the poverty level, but the path should be different from that of the figure of developed nation. The concept moonlighting will get positive benefits if the Group A can have an ability to contribute to their resources to the efficient and effective economic activities by employing at least one person from Group B. There are people both educated and skilled in the poor category who are willing to provide their services if they are paid. The problem is that, they don’t have opportunities to earn extra income at initial level. Therefore if any policy should be there to encourage Group A by providing relevant sources to engage in moonlighting it will be a solution for burning problems of our country such as poverty, unemployment and inequality at least to some extent.
R.M.L.Rathnayaka(Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka)Says : 2010-08-17 12:01:40
Opening a current important issue of moonlighting by the author for discussion should be appreciated at first. Author has clearly identified the two groups of moonlighting, low income group and skilled professionals and merits and demerits of moonlighting. I am raising one adverse impact of moonlighting which is not considered by the author in relation to the lower income group. The harm occurred to the dignity of the first job by moonlighting is very enormous. As an example, government policemen who are in the lower grades are working as private securities, three- wheel drivers etc (Divaina, 2010.07.25). Although they are trying to uplift their living condition by earning additional income after the duty, it damages to the receptiveness of their first job and it is a barrier to do duties genuinely in first the job in the work places such as the Department of Police. The low salaries for these groups caused for this type of evening work. The attention of policy makers in the labour market and the government should pay attention on this. If the process continues, the development process of the country would be negatively affected by such moonlighting.
U.Shanika Thathsarani(Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka)Says : 2010-08-31 02:24:42
A very good criterion is referring by the author which is more appropriate to the Sri Lankan context. Moonlighting or multiple jobs holding, reflects an increase need for flexibility to combine work and family, growing financial job stress and a need to develop an alternative job prospect. Moonlighting can be considered as for self- insurance device that individual or as a family use in alternative to surviving basically following their consumption patterns. I would like to suggest to the researcher to find out the relationship in between moonlighting and the marital state as an extra point. Families are striving to achieve a comfortable stands of living by increasing weekly hours of work and by additional income from working. Eventually what would they aspect whether they are professional or poor moonlighting? The answer for the above question is additional income. However in Sri Lankan situation majority are involving with working poor moonlighting and it was further proved by according to Rathnayaka’s view. In addition to that in average around 70% of those employed under the informal privet sector. Raising the minimum wages on working poor is the aspect to avoid moonlighting in poor worker, if it is a problem to a country. ”Analyzing census data, the author found that a beneficiary from a proposed federal minimum wage hike to $ 7.2 an hour is far more likely to be in a family earning more than tree times the poverty line than in a poor family”(Research on poor moonlighting, United State). But the difficulty arising here, whom we directly address to the informal privet sector? , the reason for that in the informal privet sectors are conducted without following the formalities established by the official legal framework.
