Abstract
Abstract A latent class model is proposed to examine couples’ breadwinning typologies and explain the wage differentials according to the socio-demographic characteristics of the society with data collected through surveys. We derive an ordinal variable indicating the couple’s income provision-role type and suppose the existence of an underlying discrete latent variable to model the effect of covariates. We use a two-step maximum likelihood inference conducted to account for concomitant variables, informative sampling scheme and missing responses. The weighted log-likelihood is maximised through the Expectation-Maximization algorithm and information criteria are used to develop the model selection. Predictions are made on the basis of the maximum posterior probabilities. Disposing of data collected in Japan over thirty years we compare couples’ breadwinning patterns across time. We provide some evidence of the gender wage-gap and we show that it can be attributed to the fact that, especially in Japan, duties and responsibilities for the child care are supported exclusively by women.
Highlights
IntroductionA clear division of paid and unpaid work along gender lines in households is found in most countries, but the recent trend in several advanced societies is away from the male breadwinner model towards a dual-earner family
A latent class model is proposed to examine couples’ breadwinning typologies and explain the wage di erentials according to the socio-demographic characteristics of the society with data collected through surveys
We use a two-step maximum likelihood inference conducted to account for concomitant variables, informative sampling scheme and missing responses
Summary
A clear division of paid and unpaid work along gender lines in households is found in most countries, but the recent trend in several advanced societies is away from the male breadwinner model towards a dual-earner family. Despite the increase in the paid employment of married women in Japan as well as Western industrialized societies, the notion of gendered division of labour, that is men should be the family’s primary economic provider and women should stay at home to focus mainly on domestic labour and care for family members, has been accepted as a tradition. The increasing rate of labour force participation of women does not necessarily mean that economic inequality within couples is expected to have changed. Dual-earner households does not liberate women from their traditional gender role, especially in the strong male breadwinner model like Japan. The Japanese tax and pension systems are legislated regarding the male breadwinner household as “standard
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