Outsourcing Household Tasks in 1973-2002 Among the Working Mothers of America

Outsourcing Household Tasks in 1973-2002 Among the Working Mothers of America By Mahmoud Mahmoud Khaial August, 2004 The United States has 70 percent of married mothers and 79 percent of single mothers with children under the age of 18 participating in the work force (U.S. Census Bureau, 2002). Most women in the labor force work primarily because the family needs the money. Because of the decline in real family income over the past two decades, most families find it essential for both parents to work to support them at a level that used to be achieved by one wage-earner, and in many families two earners are required to keep the family out of poverty. As a result of their inability to meet all the demands of work and home, including child care, outsourcing of daily household tasks has become a common practice for working mothers, both single and married -mothers households (Branch, 2001). The purpose of this study was to examine the general progress of the purchase of s e ~ c e s that replace households production from the year 1994 through 2002 as an extension of a study conducted by Haron (2000), whch focused on outsourcing of household tasks in 1973,1983 and 1993 among single-mother and married-mother households. Specifically, the purchase service expenditures of working married and single mothers are examined. The research objectives were to analyze new purchased service expenditure patterns, which were added to the study data conducted by Haron (2000) and to determine if the outsourcing pattern have remained the same or have changed over time. The objectives were also to determine if trends are continuing or not; to analyze factors influencing households expenditures on purchased services; to estimate the budget share allocated to each purchased services as a proportion of total expenditures, and to estimate the income elasticity of demand for purchased services of the three models: all-household, married-mother, and single-mother households. The study included three models: all-households, married-mother and single-mother households. The Study analyzed purchases of services that replace households' production between 1973-2002. The theoretical framework was taken from a prior study conducted by Haron (2000). The dependent variables are the households annual spending on each purchased services category, i.e., food away from home (FAFH), childcare (ChC), and of housekeeping supplies and services (HKSS). Research results were generated through the use of descriptive analysis, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis to examine the relationship between the dependent and independent variables. The results of this study showed that married-mother households (young family, mature family, and adult children family) show a steady increase in both income and expenditure levels, the increase in average FAFK and HKSS expenQtures is largest as the chldren age h m younger than 6 years old to between 6 and 17 years old; the increase in income is largest as the children age from between 6 and 17 years old to over 18. For both, married and single-mother households, Annual Expenditure on FAFH has a high correlation with Income after Taxes (I' = 0.974, P value <0.001). Annual expenditure on ChC has a high correlation with family income after tax, mothers' level of education and mothers' employment status. All were highly statistically s i d c a n t with <0.0001 of P value indicating that these 3 factors are highly influential in predicting the number of children enrolled in child care kilities (ChC) per category.