Gender, Domestic Labor Time, and Wage Inequality

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between domestic labor and wage labor by estimating the relative influence of hours spent in domestic labor (e.g., housework and child care) on women's and men's wages. It is hypothesized that involvement in domestic activities negatively affects wages and is likely to be an important factor in explaining women's lower wages relative to men. Findings from OLS regression analyses of white, currently employed, currently married women and men indicate that domestic labor time significantly decreases both sexes' wages. In order to assess whether this relationship differs by class, the sex-specific earnings equations also are estimated within the working class and the non-working class. The negative effect of domestic labor time on both sexes' income persists in the within-class analyses. Working-class men are more vulnerable to the detrimental influence of domestic production. Unexpectedly, housework and child care time decreases non-workingclass women's wages more so than working-class women's wages. It is noted that these findings should be interpreted with caution due to the cross-sectional nature of the data which precludes an unequivocal assessment of potential nonrecursivity in the linkages among key variables in the model. Overall, the findings imply that a more equitable distribution of work in the home is necessary before labor market inequalities between the sexes can be ameliorated.