The Family Work Week
April 2009 - The increasing proportion of full-time dual-earner families continues to make work-life balance an important issue. Both men and women in families with children report higher stress levels.
| Category | Work-Life Quality: Flexibility |
| Details | The number of dual-earner couples rose from 1.9 million (43% of couples) to 4.2 million (68% of couples). The increasing number of full-time, dual-earner families continues to make work–life balance an important issue. Fewer families have a parent at home, either fulltime or part-time, to help manage the household, to provide child care, and, increasingly, to provide elder care. Fewer one-earner families suggests that “a decline in support at home rather than an increase in the working time of individuals underlies the growing sense that families are squeezed for time and that work and family life are in conflict” (Jacobs and Gerson 2001). Around one in four men in dual-earner families with young children at home, and more than one in three women, reported feeling severely time stressed—a state associated with significantly lower rates of WLB satisfaction. Not surprisingly, women also expressed more dissatisfaction with work–life balance than did their male counterparts. Interestingly, the majority of both men and women who expressed severe time stress and WLB dissatisfaction reported a preference for their current work hours or for even more hours, suggesting perhaps that in some cases family economic security is seen as more important than personal welfare. There is increasing documentation on the need for a more family-supportive workplace, including guides to help employers, managers and policy makers make such accommodations (see, for example, Barrette 2009 and Lero et al. 2009). |
| Author | Katherine Marshall |
| Publication Date | April 2009 |
| Source | www.statcan.gc.ca |
| Format | |
| Availability | Download the report: The family work week |
