Sex and the Single Worker: Who's Cynical about Work-Life Balance?

Transcription

1 Working Papers Sex and the Single Worker: Who s Cynical about Work-Life Balance John Kervin University of Toronto Mark Easton University of Toronto UT Sociology Working Paper No September, 2016

2 Sex and the Single Worker: Who's Cynical about Work-Life Balance? John Kervin, University of Toronto Mark Easton, University of Toronto Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Sociological Association, Calgary,

3 Abstract Increasing numbers of employers are instituting policies and practices to address the problems of employees work-life balance (WLB), particularly employees with children. At the same time, some workplaces are seeing a backlash against those initiatives. In particular, single employees and those in couples without children may feel discriminated against by policies that favour parents. This paper explores attitudes towards employers work-life balance policies and practices, using data from a national survey of Canadian employees. It also asks whether female employees who are now single or in non-parent couples (but who might have children in the future) are more accepting of WLB initiatives. The results show that in general women are not more favourable to WLB, but that attitudes depend on household structure. key words: work-life balance, gender, household structure The problem of balancing one s family life and responsibilities with the obligations of the workplace has long interested researchers. Originally seen as a problem for working women (e.g., Hochschild 1989, Bianchi and Milkie 2010) research has slowly broadened from an emphasis on family to include a more general focus on balancing one s paid work with life in general. 1 At the same time, attention has widened to include men s issues, and those beyond caring for children and elders. Past literature almost suggests that men have little or no worklife conflict. As Maume (2006) notes in a survey of employees, men are more likely than women to have unused vacation time. He suggests employed men give higher priority to work than family, thus resolving any conflict between the two in favour of work. However, by adopting the view that men, as well as women, face issues of work-life conflict, and that there are more than traditional families involved, we can now examine the impact of work- 1 This is a broadening of research focus, not a change. Research continues on the problems working women face, e.g., Kmec, O Connor, and Schieman (2014). 2

4 life balance (WLB) policies for all employees. This would include, for example, the problems faced by unmarried males in their 20s, preoccupied with computer gaming, for whom paid employment is regarded as a necessary evil. Thus we here adopt a focus beyond the responsibilities that come with dependent children. In doing so, we employ a broad definition of family structure that includes both singles and couples without children. Recent research has moved beyond government programs (such as maternity leave) to look at employee attitudes about their employers WLB policies. With respect to organizations WLB initiatives, in recent years we have seen considerable research on both organizational factors leading to such initiatives (e.g., Davis and Kalleberg 2006) and employees reactions to such initiatives, including performance and helping behaviour (ten Brummelhuis and van der Lippe 2010). In particular, the benefits of those policies are not always seen as equally shared among employees, leading to some cynicism and backlash (Young 1999). Family Structure The beneficiaries of WLB policies are clearly those whose lives would otherwise be out of balance, having life demands in conflict with work demands. Two demographic factors contribute to that conflict. The most important is the responsibility that come with having children. The second, sometimes overlooked, is the responsibility that comes with having a spouse or partner. However, relatively under-represented in the literature is work-life conflict experienced by non-parent singles (those with neither children nor a spouse/partner). While some research has focused on caring for elderly parents (or family members requiring unusual amounts of care) little attention has focused on singles who may have time-consuming interests outside of work, including sports, hobbies, and memberships in religious or other groups and organizations. 3

5 Research Question This paper reports analysis to answer the following research question: Does respondent s household structure (i.e., marital status and/or presence of dependent children in the household) affect attitudes towards an employer s work-life balance policies and practices? Data The data with which we address this question originated in a Canada-wide survey carried out by Harris/Decima in The total N 2 was 1008, of whom 400 were employed full-time and a further 67 part-time (excluding self-employment). Measures Household Structure Our measure of household structure is based on couple status (married or living together), the number of persons in the household, and whether there are dependent children (under 18 years old) in the household. A small number of cases that could not be unambiguously categorized were excluded (including several who reported having dependent children living at home, but reported the number of persons in the household as one.) The distribution of respondents by household structure and sex is given in Table 1. As the table shows, the largest category is couples with one or more dependent children (N=169). The smallest is single-parent families (N=40). Table 1. Household Structure and Sex, Employed Respondents 3 2 Weighted to match regional and demographic population distributions. 4

6 Male Female Total Single, no children Couple, no children Couple, one or more dependent children Single, one or more dependent children Total Importance of WLB Respondents feelings about the general importance of work-life balance is measured with a four-item index. The interview items, with response categories, are: 1. Which of the following employment perks would you say is most important to you? Job security. Secure pension. Generous salary. Work/life balance. Great work colleagues. Not sure. None of the above. [ Work/life balance coded 1 ; rest 0 or missing value] 2. How important is it for you when deciding to take a job that the employer demonstrates an understanding of modern life challenges with policies that support work-life balance? Very unimportant. Somewhat unimportant. Somewhat important. Very important. [Coded 1 to 4 or missing value] 3. Up to how much less per year would you accept in terms of annual salary to guarantee a job with an employer that offered work-life benefits? Less than 1%. 1-3%. 4-5%. 6-10%. 11% or more. Would not accept less annual salary. [Originally coded 1 to 5 and 8 or missing value] 3 Excluding self-employed. 5

7 4. To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement: People without kids have no idea how much harder it is to juggle raising a family and a career? Strongly disagree. Somewhat disagree. Somewhat agree. Strongly agree. [Coded 1 to 4 or missing value] Where necessary, response options were re-ordered or reverse coded. Each item was then rescaled from 1 to 10, and the items summed to get a measure ranging from 4 to 40. The result was a measure of Importance of Work-Life Balance for 388 respondents, with a mean of 25.3, standard deviation of 6.70, and slight negative skewness (-.319). Perceived Employer Discrimination We constructed an index to measure the extent to which respondents believed that their employer discriminated against singles and childless employees in terms of organizational worklife balance policies or related practices (such as asking employees to work late or on weekends). This measure combined five interview items: 1. How strongly do you agree or disagree that employers discriminate against single or child-free people in the following way: formal ways, such as a bonus when someone gets married, maternity top-ups, etc.? Four response options Strongly agree to Strongly disagree. [Coded 1 to 4 or missing value] 2. How strongly do you agree or disagree that employers discriminate against single or child-free people in the following way: less formal ways, such as single people more 6

8 likely to be asked to work late or weekends? Four response options Strongly agree to Strongly disagree. [Coded 1 to 4 or missing value] 3. To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement: Company benefits and HR programs fail to equally recognize the value and needs of nonmarried, kid-free employees? Four response options Strongly agree to Strongly disagree. [Coded 1 to 4 or missing value] 4. To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement: the personal lives of those who are single/without kids are respected by your employer the same as those with kids? Four response options Strongly agree to Strongly disagree. [Coded 1 to 4 or missing value] 5. To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement: Single people are more likely to be asked to work after hours and/or on weekends than those who are married? Four response options Strongly agree to Strongly disagree. [Coded 1 to 4 or missing value] As above, where necessary, items were re-ordered or reverse coded. The items codes were then summed to get a measure ranging from 5 to 20. This was then rescaled from 1 to 10. The result was a measure of Perceived Employer Discrimination for 385 respondents, with a mean of 5.02, standard deviation of 2.23, and slight positive skewness (.137). Other Control Variables Other variables used in the analysis are summarized in Table 2. Appendix A is the correlation matrix for all variables. 7

9 Table 2. Other Variables in the Analysis Variable Name Female Dependent children Education Urban Job satisfaction Single Full-time Age Interview Source Sex Are there any children 17 or younger living in the household? What is the highest level of schooling that you have completed? Live in a census metropolitan area How would you rate your current level of job satisfaction? What is your marital status? Which of the following best describes your current job status? In what year were you born? Results: Importance of WLB The basic question this paper addresses is survey respondents attitudes towards Work-Life Balance (WLB). We would expect that the need for, and thus importance of, organizational WLB policies (e.g., work-hours flexibility) would vary with respondents sex and household structure. First, we expect more female than male respondents to find WLB important, as they are more likely to bear the burden of household and child-rearing responsibilities. The overall role of respondent s sex is shown in Table 3. WLB was slightly more likely to be regarded as important by female respondents. However, the sex difference is quite modest (eta =.11), though significant at the.05 level. 4 4 To avoid the temptation to treat statistical significance levels as indicators of the strength of relationships, we adopt the practice here of using only one significance level:.05. This level was selected on the basis of (1) the size of the sample, and (2) impressions of the precision of measurement using this particular telephone interview schedule. 8

10 Table 3. Mean Score on Importance of WLB by Respondent Sex Respondent Sex Importance of WLB N Female Male Total Second,, we expect respondents in households with dependent children to view WLB as more important than those in households without dependent children. The data are consistent with this prediction. Table 4 shows means on the index Importance of WLB for households with and without dependent children. Means for all four different household structures are given in Table 4. The difference seen in Table 4 is small, but in the predicted direction. Respondents in households with dependent children are slightly more likely to see WLB as important (eta =.16; significant at the.05 level). 5 In some tables, the sum of cell Ns will differ very slightly from the Total because of rounding in the weighted numbers of cases. 9

11 Table 4. Mean Score on Importance of WLB by Whether Household Has Dependent Children Household Structure Importance of WLB N Dependent children No dependent children Total 388 Table 5 expands these results to show the differences across all four household structures. The relationship here is also modest (eta =.17), and statistically significant at the.05 level. The means suggest that having dependent children is more important than marital status (differences in means are greater for the former, compared to the latter). Table 5. Mean Score on Importance of WLB by Household Structure Household Structure Importance of WLB N Parent single Parent couple Non-parent couple Non-Parent single Total 388 Finally, table 6 combines both sex and dependent children variables. 10

12 Table 6. Mean Score on Importance of WLB by Respondent Sex and Whether Household Has Dependent Children Respondent Sex Dependent Children No Dependent Children Mean N Mean N Total Female Male Total As the table shows, with or without dependent children, males tend to attach less importance to WLB. Similarly, whether male or female, respondents with dependent children attach more importance to WLB. In all these tables, differences tend to be in the expected direction, but are not very large. Regression models (Table 7) shed more light on the question of who is most likely to regard WLB as important. In the first model, based on all employed respondents, only two factors have a non-trivial direct impact on how important respondents believe WLB to be. Those with dependent children regard WLB as more important, and those working full-time see it as less important. Both effects are relatively small (semi-partial correlations are.15 and.20, respectively) and both are significant at the.05 level. The relationship with full-time work is somewhat surprising, as we might expect those working part-time to have more flexibility in their lives, and thus less need of WLB. However, the data show that part-time workers are more likely to be women, and to have less income, both factors that could reasonably be related to more reliance on WLB policies and practices. 11

13 Models 2 and 3 show that controlling for sex produces one interaction effects on respondents beliefs about the importance of work-life balance: having dependent children. The coefficient is significant only for female respondents (semi-partials are.21 and.10 for women and men respectivey). The factor working full time also shows a noticeable sex difference: full-time males are much less likely to regard WLB policies and practices favourably. Other coefficients (or their semi-partial correlations) are largely similar for both males and females. What these results suggest is that while in general women are not more likely than men to see WLB policies as important, women with dependent children in the household do. This finding likely reflects women s greater child-care responsibilities, and the alleviation of that responsibility, even if minor, that WLB policies bring. The second is that males are considerably more likely than females to see WLB as important if they are working part-time (semi-partial correlations of -.25 and -.17, respectively). 12

14 Table 7. Importance of WLB: Regression Coefficients and Semi-Partial Correlations Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4 Model 5 Cases All Female Male Age <41 Full-time Constant 30.93* 29.66* 35.90* 34.66* 24.39* Dependent children 2.11* * *.18 Single Female Age Income Education Full-time -4.17* * * * -.23 Urban Employer discriminates * Job satisfaction Adj. R N * Statistically significant at the.05 level. Note: Within each cell, semi-partial correlation is given under the regression coefficient. Contrary to expectations, marital status (or having a partner) doesn t affect attitudes towards WLB, even when controlling for sex. Models four and five in Table 7 explore the WLB attitudes of younger employees and full-time employees respectively. Among younger employees (model 4, age 40 or less), working part- 13

15 time is associated with more positive feelings about WLB. Also, younger employees who feel that the employer discriminates against singles and non-parents are less likely to have positive feelings about WLB (semi-partial = -.29). Among full-time employees (model 5), the table shows no noticeable differences between them and employees in general (model 1). Similar to the situation for all employees, the only factor associated with positive WLB attitudes for full-time employees is having dependent children in the household (semi-partial correlation of.18). Conclusion, Discussion, Limitations The research work of others had led us to hypothesize a relationship between household structures (combining spousal and children dimensions) and attitudes towards employer s worklife balance policies and practices. We found a relationship for one component of household structure (having dependent children), but not for a second (having a spouse or partner). This finding suggests that the most useful WLB policies and practices initiated by an employer should not be on the basis of an employee s marital status, but rather by noting the employee s responsibilities for caring for dependents. Very likely, this could be expanded to include care of elderly or infirm relatives (about which we had no data). The results reported above raise questions about, and suggest that more work is needed to understand, the role of work-life balance policies and practices for those working part-time. While part-time work would seem on the face of it to provide employees with more flexibility, and thus less need for WLB, its association with female employees, and less income needs further exploration. 14

16 The research reported here has two limitations of note. The actual sample size is quite modest, particularly when limited by employment status or sex. Second, the standard errors used for significance tests in this draft of the paper were not corrected for sample structure (e.g., stratification by region of Canada). 15

17 REFERENCES Bianchi, Suzanne M. and Melissa A. Milkie Work and Family Research in the First Decade of the 21 st Century. Journal of Marriage and Family 72: Davis, Amy E. and Arne L. Kalleberg Family-Friendly Organizations? Work and Family Programs in the 1990s. Work and Occupations 33 (2): Hochschild, Arlie The Second Shift: Working Parents and the Revolution at Home. New York, Viking. Maume, David J Gender Differences in Taking Vacation Time, Work and Occupations 33: Kmec, Julie A., Lindsey Trimble O Connor, and Scott Schieman Not Ideal: The Association between Working Anything but Full Time and Perceived Unfair Treatment. Work and Occupations 41 (1): ten Brummelhuis, Lieke L. and Tanja van der Lippe Effective Work-Life Balance Support for Various Household Structures. Human Resource Management 49: Young, M Work-family backlash: Begging the question, what s fair? Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 562:

18 APPENDIX A Correlation Matrix of Variables (Including Dummies) Single Children Female Age Income Education Full-time Urban Job satisfaction Import. of WLB Er. discriminates 17