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Ceilings: Gender Inequality in Hours, Earnings and Health

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  • Strazdins, Lyndall
  • Doan, Tinh
  • Leach, Liana
  • Li, Jianghong
  • Pollmann-Schult, Matthias
  • Kaiser, Till

Abstract

One reason gender earning gaps persist is that well-paid jobs presume long work hours, and these are incompatible with family care. Long hours also harm health, and the risks may increase for workers with care and domestic workloads, adding a gendered health penalty. Using representative, longitudinal data from Australia and Germany (144,430–153,659 observations for HILDA and SOEP surveys, respectively, 2002–2022), we model the interconnections between hours and health among men and women aged 25–64 years. Our models include hours spent on care and domestic work, to estimate the points at which working more gains earnings but incurs risks for health and how this may differ by gender. The results show that average health ceilings mirror standard work hours (38 to 43 h per week) in both countries, but this masks wide gender differences. Gender stratified models reveal that long work hours are relatively less harmful for men compared to women, and as work hours lengthen, the penalty to women’s physical and mental health increases. We further show how these differential health harms are linked to extra time spent on family care and domestic work. Our study extends theory on how gender inequality is maintained in organisations and in the labour market, and the need for policy action to limit long work hours.

Suggested Citation

  • Strazdins, Lyndall & Doan, Tinh & Leach, Liana & Li, Jianghong & Pollmann-Schult, Matthias & Kaiser, Till, 2026. "Ceilings: Gender Inequality in Hours, Earnings and Health," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 182, pages 1-27.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:337304
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-026-03820-0
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn, 2017. "The Gender Wage Gap: Extent, Trends, and Explanations," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(3), pages 789-865, September.
    2. Tinh Doan & Peter Thorning & Luis Furuya-Kanamori & Lyndall Strazdins, 2021. "What Contributes to Gendered Work Time Inequality? An Australian Case Study," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 155(1), pages 259-279, May.
    3. Deborah De Moortel & Nico Dragano & Morten Wahrendorf, 2020. "Involuntary Full- and Part-Time Work: Employees’ Mental Health and the Role of Family- and Work-Related Resources," Societies, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-14, October.
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