The impact of domestic work on men's and women's wages

Past research has consistently found that the negative relationship between housework and wages is stronger for women than for men. This article tests a potential explanation for this difference by focusing on the fact that men and women typically perform different types of household chores. Traditionally ` feminine" and "masculine" task types are likely to interfere with work differently, because they vary as to when and how often they must be performed. Based on longitudinal data from the National Survey of Families and Households, fixed-effects regression results show that only time spent in female housework chores has a negative effect on wages. Furthermore, gender differences in the effect of housework disappear upon disaggregating housework into task types. This research suggests that a more equitable distribution of not only the amount, but also the type, of housework performed by men and women in the home may lead to a narrowing of the gender gap in wages. Key Words: fixed-effects models, gender, housework, wage gap, work-family conflict. NOTE An earlier version of this article was presented at the annual meeting of the Population Association of Amer ica in New York City, 1999. I thank Pamela Smock, Sanjiv Gupta, Yu Xie, Brent Berry, and Jennifer Barber for their helpful comments. I also thank Michelle Budig and Paula England for their valuable suggestions. This research was supported by an NICHD traineeship (2 T32 HD07339). [Reference] REFERENCES [Reference] Baxter, J. (1992). Domestic labour and income inequality. Work, Employment, and Society, 6, 229-249. Becker, G. S. (1985). Human capital, effort, and the sexual division of labor. Journal of Labor Economics, 3, S33-S58. Becker, G. S. (1991). A treatise on the family. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Benin, M. H., & Agostinelli, J. (1988). Husbands' and wives' satisfaction with the division of labor. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 50, 349-361. Berk, S. E (1985). The gender factory: The apportionment of work in American households. New York: Plenum Press. [Reference] Blair, S. L., & Johnson M. P (1992). Wives' perception of the fairness of the division of household labor: The intersection of housework and ideology. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 52, 570-581. Blair, S. L., & Lichter, D. T. (1991). Measuring the division of household labor: Gender segregation of housework among American couples. Journal of Family Issues, 12, 91-113. Bound, J., Jaeger, D. A., & Baker, R. M. (1995). Problems with instrumental variables estimation when the correlation between the instruments and the endogenous explanatory variable is weak. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 90, 443-450. Coltrane, S. (1996). Family man: Fatherhood, housework, and gender equity. New York: Oxford University Press. Corcoran, M., Duncan, G., & Ponza, M. (1984). Work experience, job segregation, and wages. In B. Reskin (Ed.), Sex segregation in the workplace: Trends, explanations, remedies (pp. 171-191). Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Coverman, S. (1983). Gender, domestic labor time, and wage inequality. American Sociological Review, 48, 623-637. [Reference] Coverman, S., & Sheley, J. F (1986). Change in men's housework and child-care time: 1965-1975. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 48, 413-422. Filer, R. K. (1985). Male-female wage differentials: The importance of compensating differentials. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 38, 426-437. Gupta, S. (1999). The effects of transitions in marital status on men's performance of housework. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 61, 700-711. Hartmann, H. (1976). Capitalism, patriarchy, and job segregation by sex. Signs, 1, 137-169. Hersch, J. (1985). The effect of housework on earnings of husbands and wives: Evidence from full-time piece rate workers. …