From boundaryless work to labor-market adjustment: a multistage model of overtime pay insecurity, pay-related distress and mobility intentions

Purpose In digitally connected workplaces, overtime increasingly manifests as boundary penetration into nonwork time, complicating the recording, verification and remuneration of extra work. This study reframes overtime risk as a joint problem of boundary penetration and overtime-pay insecurity, examining a multistage pathway from overtime pay receipt status to pay-expectation-related work distress and, in turn, to multiple mobility intentions. Design/methodology/approach This study uses nationally representative microdata from Taiwan's Ministry of Labor 2025 Survey on the Living and Employment Situation of Labor to estimate a generalized structural equation model. The model examines the relationship between overtime pay receipt, distress and various mobility intentions, while controlling for worker, job, and institutional factors. Because the analysis is based on cross-sectional survey data, the estimated multistage pathway should be viewed as associative rather than strictly causal. While generalized structural equation modeling (GSEM) enables unified estimation of the multistage structure, this study does not provide bootstrapped confidence intervals for indirect effects. As a result, the mediation pattern should be considered suggestive rather than fully confirmed indirect-effect decomposition. Findings Overtime pay disadvantage reflects a governance failure in compensation realization, shaped by barriers that impede claimability. Intermittent overtime pay receipt is associated with higher distress related to pay expectations; always-on availability is an independent correlate of distress. Distress predicts external mobility intentions (within-industry and cross-industry employer change) but not intra-organizational transfer. Originality/value This study reconceptualizes digital-era overtime as boundary penetration and invisible labor, framing layered compensation realization as an institutional risk. It connects employee distress to exchange-based perspectives, such as effort–reward imbalance, justice and psychological contract. By examining multiple mobility intentions rather than a single turnover measure, the research clarifies how unjust work patterns drive labor reallocation. The study identifies intermittent overtime pay as a distinct form of compensation insecurity, separate from the traditional paid-versus-unpaid model and demonstrates that its effects differ between external and internal mobility. By integrating institutional compensation, psychological responses, and labor-market adjustment within a nationally representative empirical framework, this work offers a new perspective on digitally extended work and labor governance. It highlights compensation realization in digitally extended work as an under-theorized institutional mechanism. The findings indicate that instability in payment receipt, rather than nonpayment alone, presents a distinct risk with specific implications for distress and external mobility.