Gendered Impacts of Hourly Work on Experienced Well-Being Before and During COVID-19

• In Event: 50220 - Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 14: Work-Life

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic reshaped work environments, altering where people work, how they perform their jobs, and their emotional experiences within the workplace. These disruptions were not gender-neutral—women’s relationships to work, labor, and time were uniquely impacted—reflecting broader inequalities in the division of labor. The economic and social upheavals of the pandemic also accelerated the shift toward remote work, transforming the spatial context of employment. Despite growing research on the gendered impacts of COVID-19, little is known about how these disparities manifest in precarious hourly shift work, particularly concerning employment location and well-being. Using data from the American Time Use Survey Well-Being Module, this study analyzes how work location, employment type, and shifting job contexts shaped experienced well-being before and after COVID-19. I find that hourly workers experienced greater declines in well-being compared to their salaried counterparts, with those working from home benefiting from remote work while still encountering some of the challenges associated with workplace-based hourly jobs. Additionally, women exhibited more pronounced well-being deficits than men. These findings contribute to broader discussions on gendered labor inequalities and inform policy debates on workplace flexibility, job precarity, and worker well-being in a post-pandemic labor market.

Author

• Abel Huskinson, University of Maryland-College Park