Does Housework Lower Wages and Why? Evidence for Britain

Women working full-time in the UK earn on average about 18% per hour less than men (EOC, 2005). Traditional labour economics has focussed on gender differences in human capital to explain the gender wage gap. Although differences in male and female human capital are recognized to derive from different household responsibilities over the life cycle, there is also a lesser-studied and more direct effect of household activities on wages. In a broad economic sense, household activities require effort, which decreases labour market productivity and thus wages. This paper first documents the relationship between housework and wages in Britain and applies a variety of econometric techniques to pin down the effect of housework on wages. It further explores what dimensions of housework are at the root of the relationship between housework and wages. After controlling for unobserved heterogeneity, we find a negative effect of housework on wages for married female workers, but not for single workers or married male workers. We argue that the factors behind the relationship between housework and wages are the type and timing of housework activities as much as the actual time devoted to housework. NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY Although the gap between men and women’s pay has been declining in recent years, full-time men still earn on average nearly 18% more than full-time women. To explain this gap and make policy recommendations, traditional economic analysis has concentrated on men and women’s skills, qualifications and labour market experience, as well as the possibility of employer discrimination against women. Our focus in this paper is different: we investigate whether, in addition to labour market activities, domestic commitments may affect wages and, given the unequal distribution of housework between men and women, so contribute to the gender wage gap. Housework may affect wages because it reduces the amount of energy and flexibility that can be brought to the labour market. Individuals who go to work tired after doing the housework are likely to perform less well than others with no housework commitments; similarly, having the responsibility of organising domestic activities may make it more difficult to concentrate at work. Furthermore, those who need to do housework at certain times (for example cooking meals) cannot be as flexible in their working hours as those with no commitments and so may be more restricted in the types of jobs they can do. To investigate the different mechanism by which housework affects wages, we analyse its effects separately for married and single people and for men and women, and we provide evidence about housework specialisation amongst married couples as compared to single men and women. Comparing people with similar education and experience (and in similar jobs), we find that married people who do more housework earn lower wages. However, we do not find these associations among single people, suggesting that the division of housework upon marriage is important for its effects on wages. A large part of the wage-housework relationship can be explained by people’s different life-cycle trajectories: more home-centred people tend to pick up fewer labour market skills and end up in lower paid jobs, while more career-oriented individuals earn more and also do less housework. Once we account for these long-term differences between people, the ‘direct’ effects of housework on wages are smaller and we find they are concentrated among married women. To explore why housework affects married women’s wages in particular, we analyse the types of housework performed by married couples and when these tasks are performed. As well as doing more total hours of housework than men (or single women), married women specialise in routine tasks (like cooking and laundry) which are done at times that may interfere with market work. In particular there is evidence that the married women’s housework may limit their market work activities towards the end of the working day. Married men, by contrast, tend to specialise in housework tasks, like gardening and household repairs, that can be put off to the weekend. Overall, we find that housework lowers wages but our results also suggest that the type and timing of different housework tasks is as important as the total time devoted to housework. In the short-term a redistribution of some key housework tasks from men to women within couples would likely lead to a modest reduction in the gender wage gap. But the longer term effect could be substantially larger if it changed women’s orientation to the labour market and encouraged them to aim for higher qualified and better paid jobs.