Famlies and Long Hours

HOUSEHOLD TYPE

Figure 20 shows the distribution of working hours by household type. The graph shows that workers in couple households are the most likely to work long hours (24.3%), followed by those in one-person households (23.81%) and those in “couples with children” households (23.71%). Single parents with children are the most likely to work part-time (32.32%) and the least likely to work long hours. However, differences between the groups are generally fairly small. Workers living in couples households, both with and without children, are slightly over-represented amongst long hours workers. Couples with children make up 42.33% of long hours workers but 39.96% of the workforce. Similarly, those in couple households make up 27.23% of long hours workers and 25.1% of the workforce. Single parents, by contrast, were under-represented in long hours workers, relative to the total workforce.

Figure 20: Distribution of working hours by household type

Data Table for Figure 20

Figure 21 compares the household composition of long hours workers with that of the total workforce.

Figure 21: Household composition, long hours workers and total workforce

Data Table for Figure 21

LONG HOURS AND NUMBER OF CHILDREN

Figure 22 shows the distribution of working hours by the number of dependent children. Those with no children were the least likely to work part-time, but were not the most likely to work long hours.

Figure 22: Distribution of working hours by number of dependent children in family (n=920,337)

Data Table for Figure 22

Figure 23 uses the same data, but shows the proportions of long hours workers by the number of children. Workers with three and four dependent children are slightly more likely to work 50 or more hours per week, with 24.1% and 23.19% of these groups working long hours. Those with seven and eight dependent children are, perhaps not surprisingly, the least likely to work long hours, with 16.58% and 20.28% of these groups working 50 or more hours each week.

Figure 23: Proportions of long hours workers by number of dependent children (n=920,337)

Data Table for Figure 23

Figure 24 shows the proportions of long hours workers by the age of their youngest dependent child and compares this with the total workforce. The graph shows that those with younger children are slightly over-represented amongst long hours workers, while those with teenagers are slightly under-represented. However, the differences are very small, and overall, long hours workers have a similar profile to the total workforce with regard to the age of their youngest dependent child.

Figure 24: Proportions of long hours workers and total workforce, by age of youngest dependent child (n=707,769)

Data Table for Figure 24

DUAL EARNER COUPLES

In order to look at total family working hours, working hours were aggregated for opposite sex couples with at least one dependent child where both partners worked and where both partners lived in the same household. As such, the analysis excludes same sex couples, and couples where one partner does not undertake paid work. This resulted in a sample of 337,203 couples.

Because the hours for couples have been aggregated, couples that work a combined total of 80 hours may not necessarily be two full-time workers. A couple working 80 hours may work any combination of hours that total 80, such as one partner working 60 hours and the other 20. Figure 25 shows the proportion of couples by number of dependent children. The first bar shows that the majority of dual earner couples with dependents (n=332,203) have one or two children, with only 15.58% having three children and 6.1% having four or more children. The second column shows the proportions of dual earner couples with dependent children who work a combined total of 80 or more hours a week (n=98,466), again by number of children. The final column shows the proportions of dual earner couples with dependent children who work a combined total of 100 or more hours a week (n=27,063), by number of children. Of the couples who worked 100 or more hours between them, there were 12,963 couples with dependent children where both partners worked 50 or more hours each.

Figure 25: Proportions of dual earner couples with dependent children, by number of dependents

Data Table for Figure 25

Couples with only one child were more likely to work 80 or more hours per week than those with more children and were also more likely to work a combination of 100 or more hours each week. 32.88% of couples with one child worked 80 or more hours a week, with 8.79% working 100 or more hours. These proportions dropped as the number of dependent children rose, with 19.62% of dual earner couples with four or more children working a combined total of 80 or more hours a week, and 5.49% working 100 or more hours a week.

Figure 26 shows the proportions of dual earner couples working 80 or more and 100 or more hours per week, by the number of dependent children in the family. Overall, 29.02% of dual earner couples with dependent children worked a combined 80 or more hours each week, and 8.03% of these couples worked 100 or more hours per week between them.

Figure 26: Proportions of dual earner couples working 80+ and 100+ hours combined per week, by number of dependent children

Data Table for Figure 26

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