Female self-employment and demand for flexible, nonstandard work schedules

Motivated by the rising importance of female self-employment, this article develops and estimates a two-step empirical model to explain why married women choose self-employment over wage-salary employment. The article also develops a bounded influence regression model to estimate self-employment wage equations. In sum, a woman is more likely to choose self-employment the greater her relative earnings potential as self-employed, the greater her demand for flexibility, the greater her demand for a nonstandard work week, and if her husband has health insurance. The increase in women's earnings potential as self-employed explains most of the increase in their self-employment from 1979 to 1990.     

Self-employment,earnings, and sexual orientation

Although many studies document differences by sexual orientation in earnings and other labor-market outcomes, little is known about differences in self-employment. Our study contributes to both the self-employment literature and sexual-orientation literature by analyzing differences in self-employment rates and earnings by sexual orientation. Gay men are less likely to be self-employed than married men, whereas lesbians are equally likely to be self-employed as married women. We find that gay men earn less than married men. We do find, however, that for those gay men who are self-employed, there is little evidence of a further earnings penalty, at least among full-time workers. Lesbians earn at least as much as married women, but receive no further earnings premium—or penalty—by being self-employed, again among full-time workers.     

Earnings,Effort, and Work Flexibility of Self-Employed Women and Men: The Case of St. Croix County,Wisconsin

Data collected on self-employed women and men in one county allow examination of work effort, housework effort, housework hours, and preference for flexible work on earnings. Regressions indicate housework effort of self-employed women contributes to their lower earnings. Housework hours do not supporting the view women select self-employment to find flexible work. Housework hours do reduce the earnings of self-employed men, which could reflect their stronger commitment to housework combined with less flexible work. A Oaxaca decomposition suggests less tenure and greater housework effort are important contributors to lower earnings of self-employed women. Ranges that measure earnings may contribute to the insignificance of work effort, normalized work effort, and preference for flexible work hours. (J16, J23)

Job Segregation and Gender Differences in Work-Family Spillover Among White-Collar Workers

We test two propositions in this paper: (1) work-family conflict varies with gender composition and hours on the job; and (2) women will experience more tension between work and family responsibilities than will men. Using a sample of white-collar workers, we measured work-family conflict with a composite scale tapping negative job-to-home spillover. Workgroup composition had no effect on men's reported work-family conflict, while work hours was positively associated with work-family conflict. For women, longer work hours and tokenism in the immediate workgroup increased perceptions of work-family conflict, but unexpectedly, the interaction of work hours and tokenism was negatively related to work-family conflict. We explored several possible arguments for this contrary finding.     

Self-employment and earnings among immigrants in Australia

This article contributes to the small Australian literature on the earnings of immigrants in the self-employment sector. Earnings functions for both the foreign-born and Australian-born are estimated, and the results show that compared with native-born workers, foreign-born workers have higher earnings in the wage/salary sector but lower earnings in the self-employment sector.
Among the foreign-born, the results suggest that self-employed immigrants are less skilled compared with those who are wage/salary employed. Thus, low-skilled immigrants may be forced into self-employment.
There is no evidence of immigrant "catch-up" in the self-employment sector. Among wage/salary workers, however, immigrant wages are characterized by a "catch-up" effect.     

The male/female earnings gap and female self-employment

This paper examines the gender differences in the choice to become self-employed. Of particular interest is the relationship between the male/female earnings gap in wage and self-employment, and the male/female differences in the average predicted probability of self-employment. It has been argued that earnings inequality in wage-employment lead women to choose self-employment. However, it may be the case that inequality in the form of consumer discrimination causes an earnings gap between males and females in self-employment. If inequality is higher in self-employment than in wage-employment, then there would be females in wage-employment who would be in self-employment in the absence of inequality in both sectors.     

Gender inequality in wage earnings and female self-employment selection

Female self-employment has risen strongly over the last few decades and has become an important labor market development. The few studies that have examined women’s decision to become self-employed indicate that this decision is complex. Women are more likely than men to shoulder family-related obligations, especially child rearing, and there is evidence that this affects some women’s propensity to become self-employed. Also, women have yet to achieve full economic parity with men in wage employment. This paper specifically examines how gender inequality in wage earnings may precipitate some women’s selection out of wage employment and into self-employment. We find that women’s lower wage returns to observed worker characteristics have a positive and significant effect on women’s decision to switch from wage employment to self-employment.     

Are mothers of young children more likely to be self-employed? The case of Sweden

Previous studies, mostly from Anglo-Saxon countries, find a positive correlation between the presence of young children in the household and self-employment probabilities among women. This has been seen as an indication of women with young children choosing self-employment as a way of balancing work and family commitments. This paper studies the relationship between children and female self-employment in a country with family friendly policies and a generous welfare system: Sweden. The initial hypothesis is that we will not find evidence of a positive effect of children on self-employment among Swedish women since there are other institutions in place aiming at facilitating the combination of work and family. Using Swedish register data for the period 2004–2008 we do, however, find that the presence of young children increases the probability of choosing self-employment also among Swedish women. The effect is strongest for women with very young children, 0–3 years of age. These results also hold in a panel data model that takes individual unobserved heterogeneity into account. We also analyze time-use data and find, contrary to what has been found in many other countries, that self-employed women spend more, or as much, time on market work than wage-earning women. This raises doubts about whether women in Sweden chose self-employment as a way of balancing work and family commitments.     

Self-employment and family life: constructing work–life balance when you're ‘always on’

This study explores how men and women who are self-employed and have children living at home construct work–life balance. Guided by the concept of work–life fit, in-depth interviews were conducted with 22 parents who were self-employed and had at least one dependent child. Using thematic analysis, the first theme, ‘in control,’ related primarily to schedule flexibility but also extended to income opportunities and, sometimes, to job security. Feelings of control were experienced and expressed in relation to shortcomings of previous job experiences, business location, and preferences for raising children. The second theme, ‘always on,’ meant that parents expected to be both readily accessible to children and available to clients, while continually pursuing income opportunities. This contributed to time pressure, although some viewed participation in volunteer and children's activities as a form of business networking. Work–life balance was described in terms of time, activity, or experience. Most participants believed self-employment contributes positively, but some questioned whether work–life balance is possible. Parents mostly followed traditional gender role patterns. Some fathers resisted this arrangement and saw self-employment as a way to participate more actively in family life. Implications and directions for further research are discussed.     

Low-skilled immigrant entrepreneurship

More than ? of the foreign born workforce in the US have no schooling beyond high school and about 20% of the low-skilled workforce are immigrants. More than 10% of these low-skilled immigrants are self-employed. Utilizing longitudinal data from the 1996, 2001 and 2004 Survey of Income and Program Participation panels, this paper analyzes the returns to self-employment among low-skilled immigrants. We find that the returns to low-skilled self-employment among immigrants is higher than it is among natives but also that wage/salary employment is a more financially rewarding option for most low-skilled immigrants. In analyses of earnings differences, we find that most of the 20% male native-immigrant earnings gap among low-skilled business owners can be explained primarily by differences in the ethnic composition. Low-skilled female foreign born entrepreneurs are found to have earnings roughly equal to otherwise observationally similar self-employed native born women.     

Marriage,Children, and Self-Employment Earnings: An Analysis of Self-Employed Women in the US

This research focuses on the relationship between marriage and women’s self-employment earnings in the US. The basic proposition is that marriage poses an additional constraint on women entrepreneurs. By acknowledging the overlap of gender, family, and business we are able to observe the relationship between the institution of marriage and women’s self-employment earnings. This research used the Integrated Public Use Microdata System’s 2009 American Community Survey. Marriage and children had a negative association with women’s self-employment earnings.     

HOME-TO-JOB AND JOB-TO-HOME SPILLOVER: The Impact of Company Policies and Workplace Culture

We draw on gender theory and neo-institutional theory to examine the impact of workplace characteristics and family demands on negative job-to-home and home-to-job spillover. Our multivariate analyses of the 1997 National Study of the Changing Workforce data indicate that family-supportive workplace cultures reduce negative spillover in both directions, whereas the availability of company policies, such as dependent care benefits and flextime, do not. Our results also show that family demands increase spillover more for women than for men. Our findings suggest that the atmosphere of the workplace is more important than the availability of company policies in reducing negative spillover.     

The changing nature of work among the self-employed in the 1990s: Evidence from Britain

We use British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) data to examine the changing nature of work among the British self-employed in the 1990s. In the process we uncover several surprises and puzzles given the body of “received wisdom” about growing flexibility of work and employment patterns in that decade. Conventional wisdom implies three hypotheses: (1) growing female self-employment; (2) growing flexibility of employment involving more part-time work, temporary employment, and multiple job holding; and (3) a convergence in work hours between males and females. The principal surprises are that the data refute the first two hypotheses outright and provide only partial support for the third. An outstanding puzzle is why own-account, self-employed males work such long hours for wages that are generally lower than those of employees. At the same time, the self-employed are less satisfied with their work hours than employees are, despite being more satisfied on average with other characteristics of their jobs and with their lives in general. We estimate a panel data work hours equation by instrumental variables in an effort to resolve the puzzle and to shed light on self-employed labor supply behavior.     

Complex Worker: Self-Concept and Boundary-Work Among the Solo Self-Employed

Abstract

This article proposes to examine the self-concept of members of an occupational category referred to as the “solo self-employed”—women and men who work alone and do not employ other workers. Our findings reveal that although the solo self-employed themselves do not make clear phenomenological use of the solo-self-employed category, they do speak similarly about their occupational independence, albeit without group awareness. The self-concept of the solo self-employed is mainly based on boundary work in relation to two well-known cultural-occupational categories: “employed workers” and “businesspeople.” Solo-employed workers prefer to distance themselves from these two categories and define themselves through negative comparisons between themselves and the two preceding categories. The Discussion section proposes perceiving solo self-employment as a social category that constructs an alternative self in relation to the selves associated with popular cultural-occupational scenarios.     

DOMESTIC WORK, FAMILY CHARACTERISTICS, AND EARNINGS:

Using the 1996 Indiana Quality of Employment Survey, we reexamine gender and class differences in the effects of domestic work and family characteristics on earnings. We expand upon Coverman's (1983) original model by including several new measures. We find that the gender gap in domestic work has narrowed considerably, not because men are doing more but because women are doing less than they were twenty years ago. Women's earnings suffer more than men's from time spent on domestic work and generally benefit more from partners' domestic help. Women's earnings are more advantaged than men's by having preschool children, and men's earnings are more advantaged when their partner works. We find significant class differences in the effects of domestic work between working-class and non-working class women and in the effects of family characteristics between working-class and non-working class men. Non-working class women's earnings suffer more from time they put into domestic work, but their earnings generally benefit more from partners' or outside domestic help. Working-class men's earnings are more advantaged by having school-age children and more disadvantaged by having progressive gender ideologies. Non-working class men's earnings benefit more when their partners hold a job but suffer more as their partners work more hours.     

Work-to-Family and Family-to-Work Spillover: The Implications of Childcare Policy and Maximum Work-Hour Legislation

This paper addresses the relationship between individual-level work-to-family and family-to-work spillover and two country-level policy measures: childcare policy and maximum work hour legislation. Coupling Gornick and Meyers?? (Families that work: policies for reconciling parenthood and employment, 2003) policy measures with individual-level data (N?=?7,895) from the 2002 International Social Survey Programme, the authors analyze whether men and women in countries with stronger childcare policies and maximum work-hour legislation exhibit work-to-family and family-to-work spillover. The authors find that neither childcare policy nor maximum work-hour legislation is significantly associated with work-to-family spillover. Stronger childcare policy is associated with lower family-to-work spillover for women, especially for women with young children. Maximum-hour legislation is associated with greater family-to-work spillover for women, with a significantly larger effect for mothers of young children.     

Why women earn less than men in self-employment

Data from a sample of 659 selfemployed individuals are used to evaluate explanations for the large earnings differential between selfemployed men and women. A signifi-cant portion of the differential is attributed to differences in the industrial distribution of businesses and to the differential effects of housework and family responsibilites on the earnings of males and females. Differences due to industry position are traced to the lower proportions of women in the relatively rewarding areas of construction and professional practice and their greater representation in the relatively unrewarding personal services sector. Women in selfemployment appear to be burdened by house-work and childrearing in ways that limit the scope of their selfemployed businesses and the intensity of work effort in them. If selfemployed women were to have their total hours of labor redistributed between market work and house work in the same man-ner as men, their selfemployed earnings would be substantially increased. A portion of the differential is traceable to differences in financial capital (femalerun business have smaller capital stocks) and differences in specific human capital (female self-employed have less experience in running their business).     

The nature of work and the stress of higher status

Are occupational and work conditions associated with work-to-home conflict? If so, do those associations vary by gender? Among a sample of adults in Toronto, Canada, we found that men and women in higher-status occupations reported higher levels of work-to-home conflict than workers in lower-status jobs. In addition, we observed higher levels of work-to-home conflict among workers who are self-employed and among those with more job authority, demands, involvement, and longer hours. The only significant gender-contingent effect was found for nonroutine work, which is associated positively with work-to-home conflict among men but not women. Higher levels of job demands, involvement, and hours among individuals in higher-status occupations significantly contribute to occupation-based differences in work-to-home conflict. Moreover, despite some overlap, these work conditions have largely independent associations with work-to-home conflict. Results generally support the "stress of higher status " hypothesis among both women and men. Although higher-status positions yield many rewards, such positions are not impervious to inter-role stress, and this stress may offset those rewards.     

Spillover Between Marital Quality and Job Satisfaction: Long‐Term Patterns and Gender Differences

We used data from a 12‐year panel survey of a nationally representative sample of married individuals (not couples) and structural equation modeling to investigate the process of spillover between marital quality (satisfaction and discord) and job satisfaction among married individuals. We considered three questions: whether job satisfaction and marital quality are related over the long term, whether influence flows primarily from work to family or if there is a pattern of mutual effects between job satisfaction and marital quality, and whether job satisfaction and marital quality are related in similar ways for married women and married men over the long term. We found that marital quality and job satisfaction are related over the long term and that marital quality is the more influential of these domains. We found evidence of both positive and negative spillover from marital quality to job satisfaction over the long term. Specifically, increases in marital satisfaction were significantly related to increases in job satisfaction, and increases in marital discord were significantly related to declines in job satisfaction. Finally, our results indicated that these processes operate similarly for married women and married men.     

Gender discrimination and self-employment dynamics in Europe

This paper examines the effect that gender-based earnings discrimination has on self-employment dynamics among females, with a focus on four countries in Western Europe. Using data from the European Community Household Panel in the 1999–2001 time period, we test the hypothesis that the probability of moving into self-employment is positively related to prior earnings discrimination, as measured by unexplained deviations from expected (male) earnings. Our findings suggest that women who have lower than expected wage sector earnings are more likely to leave wage employment in the following year. The results with respect to discrimination, per se, however, are mixed.