For the first time, a new Statistics Canada study has definitively linked longer working hours with increased health risks. Women moving to longer hours were more than four times as likely to smoke more than women working shorter hours. Longer work hours therefore increase the risks of cancer, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and other serious illnesses. Studies also show more subtle and indirect health consequences from overwork. Time use surveys show parents spending less time than ever with their own children, with potential effects on the psychological and mental well-being of youth.
Long hours can also increase anxiety, strain and irritability, and hasten family breakdown.
There is a greater likelihood of sleeplessness, fatigue and poor eating habits. A recent Harvard University longitudinal study found that children eating at home with their parents have healthier diets and health outcomes into adulthood than those who eat out more. In light of the doubling of obesity rates among both adults and youth in Canada since 1985, this invisible shift from the household to the market economy may carry long-term health consequences. The invisibility of unpaid work has particularly serious consequences for women, who still do most unpaid work. But Statistics Canada time use surveys show sharply increased levels of time stress for both sexes and all age groups in the 1990's.