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https://theconversation.com/new-study-finds-the-gender-earnings-gap-could-be-halved-if-we-reined-in-the-long-hours-often-worked-by-men-260815>
"There are lots of reasons why people work extra hours. In some jobs, it’s the
only way to cover the workload. In others, the pay is poor, so people need to
work extra time. And in others still, working back late or on weekends is
encouraged and rewarded, explicitly and implicitly.
Those employees who do the extra hours, willingly and without complaint, are
seen as hungry and ambitious. A view expressed in some workplaces is simply
“that’s what everyone does”.
But what if we discovered that people – at least in heterosexual couple
households – can only work long hours at their partner’s expense? Would it
still be OK for workplaces to expect people to work longer than our standard
full time week, and incentivise them for doing so?
Our study, published this month in the journal
Social Indicators Research,
found in Australian couple households where both partners had jobs, men earned
on average $536 more than women every week. In Germany, the weekly gender
earnings gap was €400.
About half of that income gap in both Australia and Germany was due to men
working long hours and women effectively subsidising them to do this by cutting
back their own work hours.
It’s tough to combine a job with running a household, but one person working
extra hours makes this almost impossible. In households, a job with long work
hours means someone else must pick up the rest. This includes caring for kids,
running the house, walking the dog, cooking dinner and more."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
