Leslie S. Stratton

Housework, Fixed Effects, and Wages of Married Workers

Although the primacy of household responsibilities in determining gender differences in labor market outcomes is universally recognized, there has been little investigation of the direct effect of housework on wages. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, cross-sectional wage regressions reveal a substantial negative relation between wages and housework for wives, which persists in specifications controlling for individual fixed effects. The evidence for husbands is inconclusive. Married womens housework time is, on average, three times that of married mens. The addition of housework time to the wage equations increases the explained component of the gender wage gap from 27-30 percent to 38 percent.

Household Specialization And The Male Marriage Wage Premium

Empirical research has consistently shown that married men have substantially higher wages, on average, than otherwise similar unmarried men. One commonly cited hypothesis to explain this pattern is that marriage allows one spouse to specialize in market production and the other to specialize in home production, enabling the former—usually the husband—to acquire more market-specific human capital and, ultimately, earn higher wages. The authors test this hypothesis using panel data from the National Survey of Families and Households. The data reveal that married men spent virtually the same amount of time on home production as did single men, albeit on different types of housework. Estimates from a fixed effects wage equation indicate that the male marriage wage premium is not substantially affected by controls for home production activities. Household specialization, the authors conclude, does not appear to have been responsible for the marriage premium in this sample.

Housework and Wages

Gender differences in labor market outcomes are often attributed to gender differences in household responsibilities, and substantial empirical evidence documents the direct negative impact of housework time on wages, particularly for married women. Using data from the National Survey of Families and Households, we find that housework has a negative effect on wages regardless of marital status. Furthermore, this relation is strongest for housework tasks such as cooking and cleaning that constitute a daily routine. Because women spend substantially more time on housework, controlling for housework time increases the explained component of the gender wage gap by 14 percentage points.

Parental Child Care in Single-Parent, Cohabiting, and Married-Couple Families: Time-Diary Evidence from the United Kingdom

The time that parents spend caring for their children is a topic of intense interest among researchers, policymakers, and parents themselves. Parental inputs of time are enormously valuable investments in children’s well-being and development. However, the declining prevalence of two-parent, married-couple families and the steady influx of mothers into the labor market are generally believed to have placed these investments at risk. We use time-diary data from the United Kingdom 2000 Time Use Study (UKTUS) to investigate how parents’ time spent in child care differs with their marital status and other characteristics. Unlike previous economic studies, which have analyzed alternative child-care activities but only among two-parent families (e.g., Peter Kooreman and Arie Kapteyn, 1987; Daniel Hallberg and Anders Klevmarken, 2003), we examine differences among married, cohabiting, and single-parent families. The household production model indicates that single-parent households may differ from married and cohabiting households either because there are fewer time resources or because there are fewer opportunities for economies of scale or specialization in household activities (Gary Becker, 1985). If marital relationships are more stable than cohabiting relationships, the type of union may matter.

A LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS OF THE FREQUENCY OF PART-TIME ENROLLMENT AND THE PERSISTENCE OF STUDENTS WHO ENROLL PART TIME

Longitudinal data from the 1990/94 Beginning Post-Secondary Survey is used to evaluate the frequency of part-time enrollment and the persistence of students who ever enroll part time. We find that part-time enrollment is twice as common as cross-sectional estimates indicate, with between 40% 50% of the student population attending part time during at least one nonsummer term within 5 years of their initial enrollment. In total, between 52% 62% of the sample either stops out for a term or enrolls part time. The persistence of this nonstereotypical population is surprisingly high, with between 40% 60% still enrolled or graduated within a 5-year period. By comparison, 60% of those who always attend full time and never stop-out persist. These figures suggest that policymakers should direct more attention to those enrolled part time.

Racial differences in men's unemployment

The author uses March 1990 Current Population Survey data to investigate the reasons for the long-standing gap between the unemployment levels of black and white men (which were about 11.8% and 4.8%, respectively, in 1990). An employment probability function that controls for labor force participation is estimated separately by race. The results indicate that only 20–40% of the differential can be explained by variables other than race that are typically associated with unemployment, such as educational level and local labor market conditions. The predicted differential appears to be greatest among younger, less-skilled men.

Are "involuntary" part-time workers indeed involuntary?

Theoretically, those classified by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as involuntary part-time workers are individuals who would like to work full-time but have been unable to obtain full-time employment. To empirically test the accuracy of that definition, the author employs simple probit models of employment preferences and employment opportunities estimated with data from the March 1990 Current Population Survey. The results confirm that those classified as involuntary part-time workers were indeed employed part-time “involuntarily.” Furthermore, those classified as involuntary part-time workers in 1990 were at least 50% more likely to be in the full-time labor force in 1991 than were those who were classified as voluntary part-time workers in 1990.

Why Does More Housework Lower Women's Wages? Testing Hypotheses Involving Job Effort and Hours Flexibility

Objective. The purpose of this paper is to test two hypotheses regarding the observed negative relation between housework time and wages for women. Methods. Regression analysis is performed to determine the robustness of the housework‐wage relation to controls for effort and job flexibility. The data contain self‐reported flexibility measures and unique information on effort that can be normalized to reduce individual‐specific heterogeneity in reporting. Results. Reported work effort and flexible working conditions are found to be significant determinants of wages, but not at the expense of housework time. Conclusion. The evidence fails to support a link between housework and wages based on either job effort or hours flexibility, but the finding that only time spent on housework on job days is negatively related to wages suggests that time constraints are a critical factor.

Male Marital Wage Differentials: Training, Personal Characteristics, and Fixed Effects

Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, we replicate previous estimates of the marital wage differential for white men, extend the analysis to African American men, then explain the within and between race differentials. We first control for formal job training, then for cognitive skills, parental background, and self-esteem with little effect. By contrast, the white differential but not the black differential disappears in fixed-effects estimation. We reconcile the cross-section/panel differentials by focusing on the distinct identification conditions employed by each technique. Men who never change marital status play a significant role in white cross-sectional estimates.

Parental Child Care in Single Parent, Cohabiting, and Married Couple Families: Time Diary Evidence from the United States and the United Kingdom

This study uses time diary data from the 2003 American Time Use Survey and the United Kingdom Time Use Survey 2000 to examine the time that single, cohabiting, and married parents devote to caring for their children. Time spent in market work, in child care as a primary activity, and in child care as a passive activity are jointly modeled using a correlated, censored regression model. Separate estimates are provided by gender, by country, and by weekend/weekday day. We find no evidence that these time allocation decisions differ for cohabiting and married parents, but there is evidence that single persons allocate time differently - as might be expected, given different household time constraints. In the U.S. single fathers spend significantly more time in primary child care on weekdays and substantially less time in passive child care on weekends than their married or cohabiting counterparts, while in the UK single fathers spend significantly more time in passive child care on weekdays. Single fathers in each country report less time at work on weekdays than their married or cohabiting counterparts. In the U.S., single mothers work more than married or cohabiting mothers on weekdays, while single mothers in the United Kingdom work less than married or cohabiting mothers on all days.