Does Housework Lower Wages and Why? Evidence from Britain

ISER Working Paper 2008-03

Authors

Mark Bryan, Almudena Sevilla Sanz

Abstract

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 decrease labour market productivity and thus wages. This paper first documents the relationship between housework and wages in the UK 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 and possible endogeneity of housework and wages, we find a negative effect of housework on wages for married male and female workers, but not for single workers. This differential effect across marital statuses suggests 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.

Also published as:

• 1. Mark Bryan ,
  2. Almudena Sevilla Sanz
  Does Housework Lower Wages and Why? Evidence from Britain presented in BHPS Research Conference , Colchester, 2007
  
• 1. Mark Bryan ,
  2. Almudena Sevilla Sanz
  Does Housework Lower Wages and Why? Evidence from Britain presented in University of Sheffield, Department of Economics Seminar , Colchester, 2007
  
• 1. Mark Bryan ,
  2. Almudena Sevilla Sanz
  Does Housework Lower Wages and Why? Evidence from Britain presented in University of Leicester, Economics Dept seminar , Leicester, 2007
  
• 1. Mark Bryan ,
  2. Almudena Sevilla Sanz
  Does Housework Lower Wages and Why? Evidence from Britain presented in European Economic Association Congress , Budapest, 2007
  
• 1. Mark Bryan ,
  2. Almudena Sevilla Sanz
  Does Housework Lower Wages and Why? Evidence from Britain presented in Keele University Economics Seminar , Keele, 2008
  
• 1. Mark Bryan ,
  2. Almudena Sevilla Sanz
  Does Housework Lower Wages and Why? Evidence from Britain presented in ESRC Research Methods Festival , Oxford, 2008
  
• 1. Mark Bryan ,
  2. Almudena Sevilla Sanz
  Does Housework Lower Wages and Why? Evidence from Britain presented in European Society for Population Economics Conference , London, 2008
  

Published

January 2008

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