Racial Differences in Time at Work Not Working

Racial differences in effort at work, if they exist, can potentially explain race-based wage/earnings disparities in the labor market. The authors estimate specifications of time spent on non-work activities at work by Black and White males and females with data from the American Time Use Survey. Estimates reveal that trivially small differences occur between non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic White males in time spent not working while on the job that disappear entirely when correcting for non-response errors. The findings imply that Black–White male differences in the fraction of the workday spent not working are either not large enough to partially explain the Black–White wage gap, or simply do not exist at all.

Time Reallocation and the Cost and Benefit of School Closures during an Epidemic

School closures are an important public health intervention during epidemics. Yet, the existing estimates of policy costs and benefits overlook the impact of human behavior and labor market conditions. We use an integrated assessment framework to quantify the public health benefits and the economic costs of school closures based on activity patterns derived from the American Time-Use Survey (ATUS) for a pandemic like COVID-19. We develop a policy decision framework based on marginal benefits and costs to estimate the optimal school closure duration. The results suggest that the optimal school closure depends on how people reallocate their time when schools are closed. Widespread social distancing behavior implemented early and for a long duration can delay the epidemic for years, buying time for the development of pharmaceutical interventions and yielding substantial net benefits. Conversely, school closure, with behavior targeted to adjust only to the school closure, is unlikely to provide substantial delay or sufficient net benefits to justify closing schools for pathogen control.

The Summer Parental Investment Gap? Socioeconomic Gaps in the Seasonality of Parental Expenditures and Time with School-Age Children

Scholars have theorized how private parental investments of money and time in children may respond differentially to the loss of the public provision of schooling during the summer, based on parental socioeconomic status (SES). Importantly, the widening of SES gaps in parental investments of money and time in children during the summer could generate SES gaps in children’s learning during the summer. We investigate the seasonality of SES gaps in parental investments of both money and time using the 1996–2018 Consumer Expenditure Survey and 2003–2019 American Time Use Survey. We find SES gaps in parental investments of both money and time during the summer and SES gaps in expenditures are larger in the summer than during non-summer months. We find little evidence that these gaps have grown substantially over time, but we do find these gaps are larger for younger school-age children than for older school-age children. This research provides new evidence regarding the link between public and parental investments in children, addresses a key mechanism underlying the debate about the summer learning gap, and provides new evidence on how parents may target investments in children towards the ages when they are most consequential.

A Research Note Describing a More Inclusive Approach to Identifying Same-Sex Cohabiters in the American Time Use Survey

Identification of individuals in same-sex relationships in the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) is of increasing interest to the research community. While the ATUS interviews one person per household, by using information about who else lives in the household, researchers can easily identify respondents in coresident same-sex couple arrangements. Previous research has outlined two approaches to identifying individuals in same-sex relationships in the ATUS that use information on the sex of household members. We extend that work in this research note by using additional information collected from a direct question to identify unmarried cohabiting partners in the Current Population Survey (CPS). We identify 23% more individuals in cohabiting same-sex relationships when we use the CPS direct question information than when we use information from the ATUS alone. We argue that this identification strategy is more inclusive of individuals in same-sex cohabiting relationships.

Associations between Bedtime Eating or Drinking, Sleep Duration and Wake after Sleep Onset: Findings from the American Time Use Survey

Sleep hygiene recommendations discourage eating before bedtime, however, the impact of mealtime on sleep has been inconsistent. We examined gender-stratified associations between eating or drinking <1, <2 and <3 hours before bedtime, sleep duration, and wake after sleep onset (WASO>30 minutes). This study utilized 2003-2018 data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), a nationally representative sample of US residents aged≥15. Participants recorded weekday/weekend activities during a 24-hour period. Age-specific Sleep duration and WASO were estimated categorically and continuously. Eating or drinking were identified from all activities recorded <1, <2 and <3 hours before bedtime. Mean±SE sleep duration was 8.0±0.006 hours, and 6% of participants ate or drank <1 hour prior to weekdays bedtime. Overall, eating or drinking <1 hour prior to bedtime was associated with longer weekdays sleep duration. Women and men who ate or drank <1 hour before bedtime, vs. those who did not, had 35 minutes [95%CI (30,39)] and 25 minutes [95%CI (21,29)] longer sleep duration, respectively, as well as increased odds of WASO; women [OR=2.03,95%CI (1.66,2.49)] and men [OR=2.64,95%CI (2.08,3.36)]. As the interval of eating or drinking prior to bedtime expanded, odds of short and long sleep durations and WASO decreased. This population-based data linked eating or drinking <1 hour before bedtime to longer sleep duration, but increased WASO. Eating or drinking further from bedtime lowers the odds of short and long sleep duration and WASO. Causal pathways are difficult to discern, though inefficient sleep after late-night eating could increase WASO and trigger compensatory increases in sleep duration.

Racial/Ethnic Variation in Residential Fathers’ Time in Childcare and Co-presence with Children

Past research on racial/ethnic minority fathers’ involvement in children’s lives tends to focus on subgroups of fathers and narrow definitions of involvement, making knowledge of racial/ethnic variation in fathering obscure. Using ordinary-least-squared regression models with the 2003-2019 American Time Use Survey (N = 30,622), we compare White, Black, Latino, and Asian residential fathers’ time spent in four childcare activities and 10 additional daily activities when fathers are co-present with children, attending to variation by age of children. Results show that how fathers spend time with children varies by racial/ethnic group across stages of children’s lives. Latino fathers spend more time in presence of young children than other fathers, whereas Black and Asian fathers spend less time in presence of older children than other fathers, with differences concentrated in the amount of downtime spent together. Within father-child co-present time, Black fathers spend more time in religious activities, Latino fathers in shopping, and Asian fathers in hobbies. Considering the narrower arena of childcare, Black and Latino fathers spend less time overall, White fathers spend more time on play, and Black and Asian fathers spend more time teaching children. These findings suggest that broadening assessments of time beyond childcare and being attentive to fathers in different racial/ethnic statuses enrich our understanding of how fathers spend time with children and align more with the whole of family life across children’s developmental stages.

Temperature and work: Time allocated to work under varying climate and labor market conditions

Workers in climate exposed industries such as agriculture, construction, and manufacturing face increased health risks of working on high temperature days and may make decisions to reduce work on high-heat days to mitigate this risk. Utilizing the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) for the period 2003 through 2018 and historical weather data, we model the relationship between daily temperature and time allocation, focusing on hours worked by high-risk laborers. The results indicate that labor allocation decisions are context specific and likely driven by supply-side factors. We do not find a significant relationship between temperature and hours worked during the Great Recession (2008–2014), perhaps due to high competition for employment, however during periods of economic growth (2003–2007, 2015–2018) we find a significant reduction in hours worked on high-heat days. During periods of economic growth, for every degree above 90 on a particular day, the average high-risk worker reduces their time devoted to work by about 2.6 minutes relative to a 90-degree day. This effect is expected to intensify in the future as temperatures rise. Applying the modeled relationships to climate projections through the end of century, we find that annual lost wages resulting from decreased time spent working on days over 90 degrees across the United States range from $36.7 to $80.0 billion in 2090 under intermediate and high emission futures, respectively.

Gender Inequality in Housework: Persistence and Change by Partnership and Parenthood Status in the Early 2000s

Heterosexual unions and parenthood are key contributors to gender inequality in housework. Over the last two decades, the social meaning of partnership and parenthood has changed. This study investigated whether this change in the narrative of partnership and parenthood status influenced changes in the housework gender gap. Using the American Time Use Survey 2003–2005 and 2013–2015, the findings show that housework gender gap was larger for people in a couple relationship than for singles. For nonparents, the gender gap in housework was no difference between those married and those cohabiting. Gender inequality in housework persisted among married parents but decreased among cohabiting parents, mainly because of the increase in cohabiting fathers’ housework time. These findings suggest a heterosexual union, particularly marriage, reproduces conventional gender roles. Men’s gendered behaviors were not uniform but diverse across partnership and parenthood status.

More Time with the Family? Workplace Flexibility Policies and Fathers’ Time with Children

How can workplaces ease the “time squeeze” faced by families struggling to balance paid work and family caregiving responsibilities? According to scholars, employers, and policymakers, workplace flexibility policies are a potential solution that may allow parents to spend more time with children. These policies may be particularly salient for fathers’ involvement in family life, as fathers do not feel they spend enough time with children, and as there is persistent gender inequality in the division of care work. Using the 2017-2018 American Time Use Survey Leave Module, this paper examines the association between flextime (control over start and end times) and flexplace (working from home) policies and different-sex partnered fathers’ time with children. Extending prior research, I distinguish between different types of father-child time and between solo parenting and time co-present with the mother. Flexibility policies are associated with increases in fathers’ family time with children – when the mother is also present. Fathers with frequent flextime access report more family time, yet those with less frequent access report less family time. Fathers who use flexplace report more family time, especially if they frequently work from home. Ultimately, this study complicates understanding of the implications of increasingly popular policies for fathers’ involvement, gender inequality, and family well-being.