Work Time Regimes and the Comparative Political Economy of the Gender Pay Gap

• In Event: Political Economy, Knowledge and Inequalities

Abstract

Recent research by labor economists (notably Goldin 2015) have concluded that the persistence of the gender pay gap in the United States is tied to work time arrangements, and in particular to the prevalence of occupations that disproportionately reward employees who work long hours on inflexible schedules. By examining the degree to which similar factors shape gender inequality in two other advanced economies, France and Germany, this paper argues that this phenomenon is an artifact of a specific - and politically constructed - American work time regime. It finds that French work time regulations, by placing downward pressure on male work time (and in the context of relatively generous public childcare provision, facilitating full-time careers for mothers) makes for a significantly more favorable labor market context for the majority of French women than is the case for the US's nominally gender-neutral regime or Germany's persistent male-breadwinner model. This French regulatory context makes it less costly for women with caring burdens (or simply preferences for shorter hours) to avoid occupations whose work norms would place them at a disadvantage; there is simply a much larger supply of occupations (and firms) where the normal work week - including, crucially, that of men - is reasonably limited. Accordingly, both through the socialization of care work but also, crucially, the direct regulation of work time, the French work time regime diminishes - while far from eliminating - the career penalty faced by women combining work and family.

Author

• James Conran, University of Oregon