‘Stuck’ in nonstandard schedules? Married couples’ nonstandard work schedules over the life course

ABSTRACT

Though employment outside of regular daytime business hours has remained high since the 1990s, trends in nonstandard employment schedules over the life course and across households remain under-examined. The consequences of nonstandard scheduling extend to workers, their spouse, and children, urging greater attention to the distribution of nonstandard schedules at the couple-level. Using all three waves of the National Survey of Families and Households, this article examines the prevalence, persistence and sociodemographic patterns of rotating and night employment at the couple-level, following 913 married couples in the United States as they aged from the late 1980s to early 2000s. Though aging reduced the likelihood that couples had one or both spouses working nonstandard hours, roughly one-third of couples with nonstandard scheduling continued to experience nonstandard schedules during the subsequent observation period. Nonstandard schedules were stratified by education and race/ethnicity. This stratification persisted as couples aged, even after controlling for prior work schedules. Findings suggest that disadvantaged couples remain disproportionately exposed to schedules associated with negative outcomes for family well-being across the life course.

RESUMEN

Aunque el empleo fuera del horario regular de los días de oficina ha permanecido alto desde la década de los 90, las tendencias de empleos con horarios de trabajo irregulares, durante del ciclo de vida y a través de los hogares, continúan siendo muy poco analizadas. Las consecuencias de los horarios irregulares se extienden a los trabajadores, cónyuges e hijos, demandando mayor atención a la distribución de estos horarios a nivel de pareja. Utilizando las tres encuestas del Censo Nacional de Familias y Hogares (National Survey of Families and Households), este artículo examina la prevalencia, persistencia y patrones sociodemográficos de la rotación y empleo nocturno de 913 matrimonios en los Estados Unidos, desde finales de la década de los 80 hasta el inicio de los años 2000. Aunque la probabilidad de trabajar con horarios irregulares se reduce con los años, aproximadamente un tercio de las parejas continuaban con horarios irregulares durante el período de observación posterior. Los horarios irregulares fueron estratificados por nivel educativo y etnia. Esta estratificación permaneció conforme las parejas envejecieron, incluso después de controlar por horario de trabajo anterior. Los resultados sugieren que las parejas desfavorecidas permanecen desproporcionadamente expuestas a horarios irregulares, asociados con consecuencias negativas para el bienestar familiar a través del curso de vida.

KEYWORDS:

• Employment
• schedules
• time
• shift
• age
• life course

PALABRAS CLAVE:

• Empleo
• horario
• hora
• turno
• edad
• ciclo de vida

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Katrina Leupp is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Washington State University, and was an NICHD Trainee at the Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology at the University of Washington. Her research examines the gendered organization of paid and unpaid labor, and its consequences for social inequality, health and family functioning. Other current projects consider the mental health benefits of employment, investigating how intra-household resource distribution, gender attitudes, and life course stages condition the link between employment and mental health by gender.

Sabino Kornrich is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Emory University. Much of his current research focuses on parents’ monetary investments in children and how these have changed over time. He is also interested in processes that structure relations between income, expenditures, time in housework, and the role of gender for these processes. His earlier research examined discrimination charges in organizations and sources of Black–white labor market inequality.

Julie Brines is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Washington. Her research examines how the principles that organize work and allocation decisions within families are tied to durable patterns of inequality. Current projects analyze the effects of changes in local labor and housing markets immediately before and during the Great Recession on county-level rates of filing for divorce.

Notes

1 Unemployment is expected to reduce the likelihood of night or rotating schedules among workers who are otherwise disadvantaged in the labor market. To examine if unemployment contributed to lower estimates of the association of education and race/ethnicity with nonstandard schedules, we examined the link between sociodemographic characteristics and the likelihood that couples had at least one spouse in the disadvantaged employment statuses of a nonstandard schedule or unemployment. Results appear in Appendix C, in the online supplement. Estimates tended to be similar or more conservative in size and significance than estimates of the association of sociodemographic characteristics with nonstandard schedules only, and thus did not indicate presented estimates of the association of nonstandard schedules with sociodemographic characteristics are downwardly biased by grouping unemployment and being out of the labor force in the same category.