Why Does More Housework Lower Women's Wages? Testing Hypotheses Involving Job Effort and Hours Flexibility

Objective. The purpose of this paper is to test two hypotheses regarding the observed negative relation between housework time and wages for women. Methods. Regression analysis is performed to determine the robustness of the housework‐wage relation to controls for effort and job flexibility. The data contain self‐reported flexibility measures and unique information on effort that can be normalized to reduce individual‐specific heterogeneity in reporting. Results. Reported work effort and flexible working conditions are found to be significant determinants of wages, but not at the expense of housework time. Conclusion. The evidence fails to support a link between housework and wages based on either job effort or hours flexibility, but the finding that only time spent on housework on job days is negatively related to wages suggests that time constraints are a critical factor.