Nonstandard Work and Child Care Choices of Married Mothers

Abstract

have been well documented in the social science literature as well as in the popular media in recent years. One specific area of growing concern is the particular set of problems faced by families with one or more workers holding a job with a nonstandard work schedule. In married couple families, more than 17.5 percent of fathers and 10.8 percent of mothers hold nonstandard jobs; that is, jobs outside the weekday work times of 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. [Beers, 2000]. x The presence of young children in such families further complicates the analysis, and it is this complex interplay between nonstandard employment and child care choices that is the focus of this paper. The contribution of this paper is two-fold and arises from the use of two separate models. Including two models in one paper permits us to examine two distinct issues concerning nonstandard work and child care choices. First, we contribute to the child care choice literature by examining the impact of nonstandard work on the child care choice decisions of mothers taking into account the likely endogeneity of nonstandard work. This first model allows us to determine the extent to which nonstandard work affects modal child care choices controlling for the prices of alternative modes of care. Second, we examine the extent to which child care prices simultaneously affect work status (no work versus standard work versus nonstandard work) decisions and child care choices. This second model allows us to determine the extent to which changes in child care prices induce not only a substitution across modes of child care but also simultaneously across work status decisions. Historically, less-educated workers have worked disproportionately in off-hours jobs. And, because of the high correlation between education and earnings, these nonstandard workers tend to be lower income. It is often precisely the families that face the inherent daily stresses of limited budgets and poor quality daycare for their children that must also manage the problems arising from nonstandard employment. Maynard et al. [1990] focus on low-income families and conclude that child care to