Overworked Individuals or Overworked Families?

TLDR

Work‑family conflict debates focus on employed parents and dual‑earner couples, yet working‑time studies usually examine individual workers. The study reexamines work‑versus‑leisure time debates and analyzes trends by examining the combined paid work of family members. The authors analyze 1970 and 1997 Current Population Survey data on working‑hour distributions among dual‑earner couples and single parents. The shift to dual‑earner couples and single‑parent households, rather than longer workweeks, has heightened work‑family balance concerns, indicating that debates should focus on combined family work schedules instead of individual patterns.

Abstract

Although debates over the growth of work-family conflict tend to center on the experiences of employed parents and dual-earner couples, analyses of trends in working time typically focus on individual workers. We reexamine the debates regarding the growth of working versus leisure time and then analyze trends in working time by focusing on the combined paid work of family members. We use the 1970 and 1997 Current Population Surveys to investigate the distribution of working hours across dual-earner couples and single parents. Our findings demonstrate that the shift from male-breadwinner to dual-earner couples and single-parent households, rather than changes in the length of the workweek per se, have created growing concern for balancing work and family. This analysis suggests that debates over conflicts between work and family need to focus more on the combined work schedules of family members than on changes in individual work patterns.