Increasing Paid Work Time? A New Puzzle for Multinational Time-diary Research

This explores the reasons that paid work time may be rising, at least in anglophone countries. Three explanations are discussed. (1) An historical reversal of the work/leisure gradient with respect to social position or social status. This gradient was once positive, but is now negative; evidence of this change from 11 developed countries is drawn from the Multinational Time Use study. (2) Paid work is becoming, on average, pleasanter, intrinsically more rewarding and desirable as an activity in itself, hence modifying the motive for reducing it. (3) An unexpected interaction between gendered preferences for different sorts of work, combined with a strain toward fairness between marital partners, over a period of women’s increasing presence in paid work, may encourage men to increase their paid but not their unpaid work.