Burnout Among Older Workers Experiencing Multiple Forms of Discrimination in the Job Market: A Latent Class Analysis

Background/purpose: Older workers (50+) face significant discrimination in the labor market, not only based on age but also due to personal traits like gender, disability, education, and employment status. Age discrimination is prominent, but multiple forms of discrimination compound the issue, increasing the risk of job burnout. Despite this, research on the Korean labor market often focuses on isolated types of discrimination, overlooking the combined effects on burnout. This study aims to (1) identify subgroups of older workers experiencing various discriminations using Latent Class Analysis (LCA) and (2) explore the association between these identified groups and job burnout in South Korea. By understanding these dynamics, we can better address the complex challenges faced by older workers in the labor market.

Methods: For this study, data from 633 older workers (aged 50+) were obtained from the 2020 Korean Working Conditions Survey. Discrimination was assessed using seven binary indicators: age, gender, disability, sexual orientation, education, region of origin, and employment type. Job burnout was evaluated using five items from the ABC scale. Demographic factors (gender, age, education, subjective health status, income level, employment type, weekly working hours, and work period) and organizational factors (workplace satisfaction, workplace size, and organizational work flexibility) were included as covariates. Multiple forms of discrimination were identified using Latent Class Analysis (LCA) in Mplus version 8.0, and the relationship between the identified groups and job burnout was examined using SPSS version 29.0.

Results: LCA identified five distinct types of discrimination: 1) 'Employment type discrimination (22.7%)', where discrimination due to employment type (e.g., irregular vs. regular) stood out; 2) 'Multiple discrimination (3.5%)', where all seven types of discrimination existed; 3) 'Minority discrimination (10.6%)', where discrimination based on gender, disability, and sexual orientation was noticeable; 4) 'Origin discrimination (21.2%)', where discrimination based on education and city of origin was evident; and 5) 'Age discrimination (42.0%)', where discrimination due to age was prominent. The results of the multiple regression analysis revealed that the 'Multiple discrimination' group had higher levels of job burnout compared to the 'Age discrimination' (β = -.301, p = -3.138), 'Employment type discrimination' (β = -.205, p = -2.455), and 'Minority discrimination' (β = -.182, p =-2.760) groups.

Conclusions/Implications: As healthy and well-educated older adults stay longer in or reenter the labor market, creating a friendly and productive work environment for them becomes increasingly important. However, it is well-known that older workers often face age discrimination. Moreover, the results emphasize that older workers encounter multiple forms of discrimination, which increase levels of job burnout. These findings suggest that South Korea's discrimination laws may not effectively protect workers from various types of discrimination. Additionally, individual anti-discrimination laws have limited scope and cannot address multiple forms of discrimination. Thus, we need to consider protection not only against age discrimination but also other types of discrimination faced by older workers at both the practice and policy levels, as the findings suggest.