Stark Choices: Work-Family Tradeoffs among Migrant Women and Men in Urban China

Abstract

China’s so-called floating population of rural-urban labor migrants includes rising numbers of couples and families migrating together. Labor market outcomes may differ for migrant men and women, in part due to family obligations, but few recent studies have investigated this possibility. This paper focuses on the relationship of labor outcomes with family obligations among migrant men and women and considers whether this relationship differs among those with higher and lower earnings potential. We perform nested logit models of employment status and ordinary least square regression analyses of income, using a nationally representative survey collected in 2013. For migrant women, childcare responsibilities are positively associated with unemployment and negatively correlated with income. In contrast, for migrant men, being coresident with children has no bearing on probability of being unemployed and is sometimes positively associated with income. Further, the “motherhood penalty” in income is most pronounced among migrant women with the least education. Results illustrate the embeddedness of individual migration decisions and outcomes within families. Findings also highlight a stark choice facing many migrant women: between earning for their children and living with them.