Secondary analysis of the Fifth European Working Conditions Survey - Lot 2: Working time and work life balance in a life course perspective

Background and Objectives

Since the 1980s, most industrial societies have experienced a marked trend towards the diversification, decentralisation and individualisation of working time patterns, driven both by companies’ needs for greater adaptability and by large changes in the gender division of labour. At the same time, and linked to the feminisation of the labour force, various forms of working time arrangements have become more widespread, in particular part-time work. The tendency to a diversification of working time has however obvious adverse gender consequences. First, the increased diversity and flexibility of working time have disproportionally been borne by women. Even though for example the development of part-time work has enabled more women to enter the labour market and limited their definitive withdrawal during parenthood, part-time work often represents a trap: it has a detrimental effect on women’s career opportunities as well as a negative impact on earnings development across the life course, with high risk of poverty during retirement.

This project analyses data of the Fifth Working Condition Survey with more than 38,000 interviewees from 34 countries. Its main objective is to analyse the prevailing working time patterns of employees and the self-employed, moreover the situation of and lone parents will be examined. Another focus of the project lies in the analysis of the relationship between gainful employment and domestic activities, work-life balance and working time preferences across the life course.