120 Monthly Lab. Rev. 3 (1997)
Trends in Hours of Work since the Mid-1970s

handle is hein.journals/month120 and id is 303 raw text is: Trends in hours of work since the mid-1970s Although there has been little change in the average number of hours worked each week since the mid-1970s, the proportion of persons working very long workweeks has risen, and there has been a growing trend toward year-round work among women Philip L. Rones, Randy E. 11g, and Jennifer M. Gardner Philip L. Rones is Assistant Commissioner for Current Employ- ment Analysis, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Randy E. Ilg is an economist in the Division of Labor Force Statistics, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Jennifer M. Gardner is an economist formerly with that Division. _ fforts to shorten and standardize the length of the workweek were at the fore- ] front of labor market issues in the first four decades of this century, culminating in the enactment of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.' After long and hard-fought legal and po- litical battles, the act allowed for a maximum workweek of 44 hours, which then would decline to 40 hours in the third year after enactment. Al- though employers still could demand longer workweeks, hours worked beyond the legal maximum would require time-and-a-half pay. While workweek issues have fallen from the fore in recent decades, they still touch upon many key labor market topics and trends. For example, arguably the two most dominant trends in the post-World War II work world have been the in- flux of women, particularly mothers, into the job market, and the steady decline in the retirement age. Women have increased their numbers in the work force and shifted their work schedules to- wards year-round, full-time employment. In ad- dition, as work activity among older men was declining, those left working were increasingly likely to work part time. Two important issues in the 1990s are worker displacement and the quality of jobs, both of which have workweek components. Even as the overall U.S. employment numbers have risen substantially, millions of jobs have been lost each year to corporate and government restructuring. A common perception is that those spared such job loss, particularly those in managerial and pro- fessional jobs, have been compelled to work longer workweeks to protect their own positions. As for the quality of jobs, newly created jobs of- ten have been stereotyped (incorrectly) as part- time, low-wage, poor-quality jobs.2 This article examines trends in hours at work from two perspectives. First, trends in the aver- age workweek and changes in the distribution of hours worked since the mid-I 970s are examined. Then, the focus is expanded to estimate annual work hours. This figure is affected not only by the length of the workweek, but also by the ex- tent to which people work at all, and the number of weeks that they work during the year. Lastly, the appendix provides a discussion of the differ- ences between hours data collected following the redesign of the Current Population Survey (cps), implemented in January 1994, and those obtained prior to 1994. Because of the effect of those changes on work-hour estimates, trend data in the article are restricted to the period through 1993.3 Measuring hours of work Estimates of the length of the workweek can be obtained from workers themselves or from their employers. Employer-based surveys count the to- tal number of jobs held by workers, so average hours calculated from those data are reported per job, not per worker. Workers, of course, can work at more than one job. Also, workweek estimates from employers generally are for hours paid (in- cluding paid annual and sick leave) rather than actual hours worked. Another shortfall of em- ployer-based surveys for this analysis is that they typically lack demographic information-such as age, gender, and education-that are critical to un- Monthly Labor Review April .1997 3