German fathers and their preferences for shorter working hours for family reasons

ABSTRACT

This study is among the first to analyze fathers’ preference for shorter working hours specifying that the preference is related to the wish to spend more time with the family. Assuming that preferences are context-dependent, this article explores the relevance of the family and workplace context for preference formation. We develop need-based and capability-based arguments to contrast the job demands–resources approach and the capabilities approach in work–family research. Using a sample of 632 fathers from the German LEEP-B3 data with a representative linked employer–employee design for large work organizations we conclude that fathers’ preferences for shorter working hours are indeed context-dependent and that there is more evidence for need-based arguments than opportunity based arguments. Our results indicate that fathers with young children and fathers with high work demands are more likely to desire shorter working hours, whereas a reduction in working hours appears to be unnecessary for fathers who can satisfactorily reconcile work and family life through support from their supervisors. In contrast to capability-based arguments the perception of a highly demanding work culture was not found to decrease but increase the likelihood to desire to work shorter hours.

RÉSUMÉ

Cette étude est l’une des premières à analyser les préférences des pères en termes de réduction du temps de travail comme étant liées au souhait de se consacrer davantage à leur famille. Partant du présupposé que les préférences varient en fonction du contexte, cet article examine le rôle joué par le contexte familial et professionnel dans la formation de ces préférences.

Afin de comparer le modèle exigences-ressources et l’approche des capabilités dans l’étude du rapport entre travail et famille, nous avons développé à la fois des arguments fondés sur les besoins et sur les capabilités.

Pour ceci, nous avons utilisé un échantillon de 632 pères tiré des données de l’enquête allemande LEEP-B3 réalisée sur la base d’un protocole de recherche reliant les données représentatives d’employeurs à celles d’employés au sein de grandes entreprises. L’étude montre que les préférences des pères pour une réduction de leur temps de travail dépendent effectivement du contexte et que les arguments fondés sur les besoins semblent prévaloir sur ceux fondés sur les opportunités. Nos résultats indiquent que les pères d’enfants en bas âge ainsi que les pères confrontés à de fortes exigences professionnelles sont plus susceptibles de souhaiter une réduction de leur temps de travail, tandis que celle-ci n’est pas considérée comme nécessaire par les pères capables de concilier vie professionnelle et vie familiale de manière satisfaisante grâce au soutien de leurs supérieurs. Contrairement aux arguments fondés sur les capabilités, nous avons constaté que le sentiment d’appartenir à une culture professionnelle extrêmement exigeante n’entraîne pas une baisse, mais plutôt une augmentation de la probabilité que les pères souhaitent réduire leur temps de travail.

KEYWORDS:

• fathers
• working hours preferences
• capabilities
• resources and demands
• family context
• workplace context

MOTS-CLÉS:

• pères
• temps de travail
• préférences
• contexte familial
• contexte professionnel
• exigences et ressources

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Anja-Kristin Abendroth is a Faculty Member in the Department of Sociology at Bielefeld University. From September 2011 to June 2016 she was also a research associate at the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) ‘From Heterogeneities to Inequalities’ in the project B3 ‘Interactions between Capabilities in Work and Private Life: A Study of Employees in Different Work Organizations’ at Bielefeld University. In 2013 she defended her dissertation, ‘Working Women in Europe: How the Country, Workplace, and Family Context Matter’, at the Faculty of Sociology/ICS at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Her research interests include social inequalities, the interplay of work and family life, and organizational and cross-national comparative research. Contact: [email protected]

Stephanie Pausch is a PhD candidate at the Bielefeld Graduate School in History and Sociology (BGHS) and was supported by a Doctorate Completion Scholarship of the Bielefeld Young Researchers’ Fund. From September 2011 to June 2016 she was a research associate at the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) ‘From Heterogeneities to Inequalities’ in the project B3 ‘Interactions between Capabilities in Work and Private Life: A Study of Employees in Different Work Organizations’ at Bielefeld University. Her research focuses on the interrelation of work and family life of employees in different work organizations. Contact: [email protected]

Notes

1 Workers subject to the social security insurance contribution were selected. In Germany, almost every worker is covered by social insurance paid for jointly by the employer and worker. Only those employees who work very few hours or who have a limited amount of earnings (currently below 450 euros per month) are not covered by social insurance.

2 We performed additional sensitivity tests applying different specifications to the dependent variable. We re-estimated our models two times: once by defining the preference to work shorter hours with a mismatch of actual and preferred work hours by at least 4 hours, and once by calculating the differences between preferred and actual hours. The results of these sensitivity tests looked very much like our reported results, and in some cases the effects were even larger. Only the effect of number of children was no longer significant, which suggests that this finding was less robust.

3 In an additional analysis, we used information on the female partner’s gross income to determine how much income the female partner contributed to the household. The effect of this variable was not significant, and owing to the relatively high amount of missing data, we decided not to include this variable in our analysis.

4 In additional analyses, we investigated how the workplace and family contexts shaped the preference to work shorter hours for leisure time reasons and for stress/strain/health reasons in different ways, and we compared the results with our analysis. We also performed an analysis in which we considered all employees who desired to work shorter hours. The results showed similarities and differences, indicating the need to analyze the specified preference to reduce working hours according to the reason for the preferred reduction.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) [grant number SFB 882/1 2011].