Determinants of Moonlighting of Married Men Workers in Colombo

Abstract

This study aims to identify the major factors which determine the motivations of moonlighting among married men workers in Colombo. For this purpose, 185 respondents who are working in various job categories were randomly selected from Avissawella electoral division in Colombo for the period of 2017. An individual’s motivation for moonlighting considered as a binary dependent variable which is categorized as being of a moonlighter or not being a moonlighter used in probit model with five explanatory variables in the study. Results of chi-square test revealed, that education level, primary income and number of children of the married men workers have statistically significant association with moonlighting. Estimated results of the probit model suggested that, education level and primary income of the married men workers, income of the wife and number of children have significantly impact on moonlighting while entitlement of employee provident fund from the primary job has insignificant impact in the study. This indicated that, married men who have improved their education levels from primary to higher, they have less likely to do more than one job and the men workers who earned more than Rs 4000 monthly income from their primary job and as well as from their wife, discouraged them to become as a moonlighter. On the other hand, the workers who have more than one child more preferred to does more than one job in the study area. Marginal effect of probit model showed that, when the married men workers earn more income from their primary job, there is a 26 % of less probability to participate in moonlighting activities by them in the study area. Findings of the study may help to the government and relevant stakeholders to develop the strategies towards the distribution of jobs and improving the workers skills in the labour market in Sri Lanka.