Time Poverty, Work Status and Gender: The Case of Pakistan

Abstract

The present study measures time poverty and its incidence across gender, occupational groups, industries, regions, and income levels using Time Use Survey (TUS) 2007, the first nationwide time use survey for Pakistan. In the entire TUS sample, the incidence of time poverty is 14 percent. Women are found to be more time poor than men whether employed or not. This is because of certain women-specific activities that they have to perform irrespective of their employment status. Working women are far more time poor than those not working.. Women accepting a job have to make a major trade-off between time poverty and monetary poverty. People working in professions and industries that generally require extended work hours and offer low wage rates are more time poor. This entails a situation of double jeopardy for workers who tend to be money and time poor at the same time. The close association of time poverty with low income found in this study corroborates this conclusion. Government can help reduce time poverty by enforcing minimum wage laws and mandatory ceiling on work hours in industries with high concentration of time poverty. Eradication of monetary poverty can also eliminate the need to work long hours at low wages just to survive. A fair distribution of responsibilities between men and women.is also needed. Keywords: Time Poverty, Gender Disparities, Time Use, SNA Activities, Time Use Survey, Pakistan