Overworked families? Changes in the paid working hours of families with young children, 1986 to 2001.

• Author: Callister, Paul

Abstract

Internationally, there is much research interest in the potential challenges associated with overwork within households, particularly for parents raising children. New Zealand census data show that, when individuals are considered, average hours of paid work for employed women and men changed very little between 1986 and 2001. Yet, in this time period, there were significant changes in both employment rates for women and men and a polarisation of hours of work among these individuals. Further affecting household working hours have been changes in family structure. When total hours of work for both single parents and couple families with young children are considered, a polarisation of hours of work is also evident. However, the shift to long hours was larger than the growth in short hours, while the average hours worked by couples with young children also increased. These findings help explain why many sole parents and couples feel that paid working time has increased and, conversely, that family time has decreased. The paper concludes by examining policy options available to governments in order to curb long working hours.

INTRODUCTION

International research indicates that over the past couple of centuries the average hours spent by individuals in paid work have reduced (Bosch and Lehndorff 2001). Yet, in the last decade, concerns about overwork in New Zealand have re-emerged (e.g. Department of Labour 2004, New Zealand Council of Trade Unions 2002). A comparison of the proportion of employees working 50 or more hours per week among a selection of OECD countries shows that New Zealand has one of the highest proportions of workers putting in long hours of paid work (Messenger 2004). Some of the concerns about long hours of paid work relate to workplace health and safety issues, while others focus on the possible negative effect on families and children (Dawson et al. 2001, Golden and Jorgensen 2002, Pocock 2001, White and Beswick 2003).

This paper has four aims. The first is to document changes between 1986 and 2001 in hours of paid work by New Zealand families with preschool children. While this includes employed sole parents and employed child-rearing couples, most of the attention is placed on couples given that there has been no significant research on the total working hours of couples in New Zealand.

Second, the paper canvasses possible explanations for the increase in working hours. This is primarily to assess whether shifts in hours worked reflect changing working-hour preferences or whether there are other drivers of change. Third, drawing on a variety of studies, some of the effects of increased working hours on unpaid work--including childcare and, ultimately, on child outcomes--are outlined. The final part of the paper highlights policy options available to governments wishing to curb long working hours, particularly among parents.

While this paper focuses on "overwork", any research on balancing paid work and family responsibilities in employed families needs to be set against an overall polarisation in employment; that is, the division of child-rearing families into either "work-rich" (i.e. all adults are in paid work) or "work-poor" (i.e. all adults are jobless). Singley and Callister (2003), using Statistics New Zealand's Household Labour Force Survey data, have shown that while by 2002 strong economic growth had reduced household joblessness back to near 1986 levels, other trends were of potential concern. In particular, between 1986 and 2002 joblessness rose substantially among households in which all working-aged members were Maori, and joblessness also became more concentrated in child-rearing and prime-aged (25-49 years) households. While jobless households, and involuntary underwork in general, are also an important policy concern, they are not addressed in this paper.

DATA AND METHODS

Although a wider programme of research uses data from the 1986, 1991, 1996 and 2001 New Zealand Censuses of Population and Dwelling, this paper focuses on changes between 1986 and 2001. The censuses provide a record of usual weekly hours of paid work, with individual hours recorded. Total work hours are used in this research; that is, hours in all jobs are added together. No attempt was made to examine the relationship between changes in multiple job holding and changes in hours of work.

The individual data can be linked at the household level for sole parents and for childrearing couples. In terms of couples, the paper firstly looks at changes in working hours for partnered parents as individuals. It then considers total hours for couples. The measure used in this research is a household-based family unit. For example, sole parents could be living in a household with other wider family or non-family members but these other individuals are not considered. Equally, couples could be part of a wider household unit. In addition, a child in a sole-parent family may be spending time with a non-custodial parent, but this cannot be determined using census data.

Age for children and parents is an important variable in this research. The analysis is restricted to parents with a youngest child under five. Although this is the age group in which mothers' working patterns are most strongly affected, in recent decades growth in employment of mothers of preschool children has been particularly strong. At the 2001 Census, within the 89,286 families with a youngest child aged under five, 47% of the female parents were employed in the week preceding the date of the Census (Ministry of Women's Affairs 2002). Yet international comparative data indicate employment rates of New Zealand mothers with a preschool child are still relatively low, particularly among sole mothers (Table 1).

In terms of parent's age, the main focus of this paper is on the largest child-rearing age groups for children under five, that is the 25-34 and 35-44 years age groups. However, the age group 25-34 years is of particular interest as, in early 2005, the government stated that, while overall New Zealand's labour force participation rates are high the rate for some groups of New Zealand women, particularly those aged 25-34, are below the OECD average (Clark 2005). This is not surprising given the overall employment rates shown in Table 1. However, for individuals, some data outside this age range are presented while, for couples, some initial data are presented based only on the child's age. While addressing age among sole parents is straightforward, defining couples by age creates some conceptual challenges. In this study, couples are defined by the age of the female partner. In addition, in this study only opposite-sex couples are considered.

The hours reported are only for those in paid work (and only those who recorded actual hours). With regards to calculating average hours of couples only those couples that were linked into paid work were included. In other words, couples where neither partner was in paid work were excluded. This means that the calculation of hours worked includes couples where one partner, usually the mother, was not in paid work.

This analysis focuses on average hours and long hours of paid work. For this research, 50 or more hours per week is used as an indicator of long working hours for individuals and sole parents. This was the cut-off point used by the Ministry of Social Development in its 2003 Social Indicators Report (Ministry of Social Development 2003). For long hours for couples, two measures are used: combined 80 or more hours, and combined 100 or more hours per week. Some data on short hours are also included to illustrate a polarisation of hours. For individuals (this includes sole parents and partnered parents), under 20 hours is considered short hours, while for couples 30 hours is used as the benchmark.

Aside from age, the main variable considered for couples is education. Three educational groups are used:

* both partners have a degree or higher qualification

* neither has a qualification

* other combinations of qualifications.

Ethnicity is also briefly considered. However, due to major methodological challenges, this is based on the ethnicity of the child, not of the parents, and data are presented only for 2001.

Finally, a number of factors such as the changing age structure of the population; shifts in the number of sole parents versus couples and increases in parental educational achievements (particularly for mothers) all influence changes in working hours. In this summary paper it is not possible to present all these data. However, background data can be found in a number of recent reports, including the technical appendices of Callister (2004a) and the Ministry of Women's Affairs (2002).

RESULTS

To set the scene for changes in employment for child-rearing families, some background data on changes in average hours of employment for individuals in the target age range are set out in Table 2. Although, when calculated across all age groups 15 years or older, average hours of paid work changed very little between 1986 and 2001, there were some significant changes in average hours worked among some age groups, notably a decline among those aged 15-24. The strongest increase in average working hours of employed individuals was among women aged 45-54, with an increase of just over two hours per week.

However, averages can disguise changes in the distribution of hours of paid work. For individuals in the target age groups, there was an increase in the proportion working either short hours or long hours between 1986 and 2001. Table 2 shows the proportion of men and women in the target age groups working 50 or more hours per week. It indicates increases in the proportion working long hours in most of the age groups shown, particularly among men and women in the 45-54 age group. This is an age group where, if the individual is a parent, the children will have already reached school age or...