Working from Home and Working Time (Mis)Match: Differences by Gender and Parental Status

Inga Lass, The University of Melbourne
Heiko Rüger, Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB)
Nico Stawarz

The COVID-19 pandemic saw a marked rise in the incidence of working from home (WFH), stimulating interest in whether this work arrangement is beneficial or detrimental to workers. Whereas several studies have associated WFH with longer working hours and overtime, little is known regarding how home workers perceive their working hours, and especially, to what extent their actual working hours correspond with their preferences. Using 22 waves of panel data from the Australian HILDA Survey covering the period 2001 to 2022, we investigate the association between the extent of WFH and two types of working time mismatch: underemployment (i.e., the desire to work more hours) and overemployment (i.e., the desire to work fewer hours). Furthermore, we consider the moderating roles of gender, parental status and the COVID-19 pandemic. Results from fixed effects logistic regression models suggest that for both genders small shares of time worked from home are associated with an increased likelihood of overemployment compared to not WFH, whereas large shares of WFH are associated with an increased likelihood of underemployment. Overall, only women, and more specifically mothers benefit from WFH in terms of a better working time match, and only when they work from home extensively.

Keywords: Longitudinal studies , Families, Unions and Households, Human Capital, Education, and Work, Gender Dynamics

See extended abstract.