The future of work within households: Understanding household-level changes in the distribution of hours of paid work

The future of work within households: Understandin…
01 Nov 2004
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In New Zealand, the weekly paid hours worked by individuals have generally not been considered in the context of hours of paid work of other adults who may live in that household. The aim of this project is to fill this research gap. Census data from 1986 through to 2001 is used in the study.

Key Results

Key findings are:

1) that there has been a decline in the hours worked by very young people reflecting increases in both participation in tertiary education and part time work amongst this group;

2) there has been an increasing employment rate of older people, but with some decrease in the average hours worked, particularly amongst those over 70, as the size of the employed group expands;

3) while average hours of work have, overall, declined slightly for employed individuals, there has been some polarisation of hours with, in most age groups, growth in both short hours and long hours;

4) when the proportion of all individuals working 50 or more hours per week is considered, there was strong overall growth from 1986 through to 1996 then a plateauing through to 2001;

5) while there was a plateauing, or even decline, in the proportion of men working long hours in most age groups since 1996, in the 55-64 age group there was growth throughout the whole time period;

6) for women aged 45-54 and 55-64 there was strong growth in the proportion working 50 or more hours throughout the whole 1986 to 2001 period, with some slowing of growth for those aged 25-34 in the five years between 1996 to 2001;

7) New Zealand stands out internationally in terms of the proportion of workers putting in long hours;

8) the polarisation of hours also shows up amongst sole parents and those in single adult households;

9) growth in long hours of paid work tends to show up stronger in couple data than in individual data;

10) the proportion of couples who worked 100 or more hours of combined work increased throughout the whole 15 year period from 1986 to 2001;

11) the strongest growth in couples working long hours was where the female partner was aged 45-54 or 55-64;

12) while the longer total hours of work in couple households is primarily due to increases in women’s employment rates, changing hours of work for individuals have also influenced the shifts;

13) qualifications are of some importance in hours of work both at the individual and household level – in 2001, well qualified individuals and couples were marginally more likely to have worked the longest hours but were far less likely to have worked short hours;

14) the presence, and age, of dependent children is a very important influence on women’s working hours, and primarily due to this, on total working hours within couples;

15) also reflecting this, the growth in long hours in couples has been strongest amongst those couples with no dependent children;

16) on average, women, both as individuals and, when partnered, tend to work shorter hours than men;

17) however, women have been increasing their share of paid working hours in couples;

18) couples working the longest weekly hours generally tend to have the yearly highest incomes;

19) while international comparisons need to be treated with caution, in terms of average hours worked by couples, New Zealand couples appear to at the high end of the hours spectrum when such comparisons are made;

20) feelings of “overwork” for some groups of New Zealander are based on real changes that have taken place in the working hours of many individuals and households;

21) yet, much of this growth in working hours appears to be driven by factors other than sheer economic necessity;

22) at the same time, changes in workplace “norms” may be leading to expectations of longer hours even amongst those who appear to have strong negotiating ability in workplaces; and;

23) the research shows that the household unit of analysis can be just as important as the individual when analysing changes in hours of paid work.

Page last modified: 15 Mar 2018