The global pandemic has led to an unprecedented shift to remote work that will likely persist to some degree into the future. Telecommuting's impact on flexibility and work family conflict is a critical question for researchers and policy-makers. Our study addresses this question with data collected before and during the COVID-19 crisis: the 2003-2018 American Time Use Survey (ATUS, N = 19,179) and the April and May 2020 COVID Impact Survey (N = 784). Comparing mothers and fathers who work exclusively at the workplace, exclusively from home, and part-day from home, we describe differences in time spent on housework, childcare, and leisure; the nature of time worked at home; and the subjective experiences of telecommuting. In addition to a broad descriptive portrait, we take advantage of a quasi-experimental design in the ATUS leave supplements to examine time working at home among those who report ever telecommuting, providing estimates of telecommuting's effect on other uses of time that better approximate causal relationships than prior studies. We find that gender gaps in housework are larger for telecommuters, and, among telecommuters, larger on telecommuting days. Conversely, telecommuting may shrink the gender gap in childcare, particularly among couples with two full time earners, although childcare more frequently impinges upon mothers' work time. Survey data collected following the March COVID19 stay-at-home orders show that telecommuting mothers more frequently report feelings of anxiety, loneliness and depression than telecommuting fathers. Early estimates of responses to the COVID19 pandemic offer insights into future implications of telecommuting for gender equality at work.
The global pandemic has led to an unprecedented shift to remote work that will likely persist to some degree into the future. Telecommuting’s impact on flexibility and work family conflict is a critical question for researchers and policy-makers. Our study addresses this question with data collected before and during the COVID-19 crisis: the 2003-2018 American Time Use Survey (ATUS, N = 19,179) and the April and May 2020 COVID Impact Survey (N = 784). Comparing mothers and fathers who work exclusively at the workplace, exclusively from home, and part-day from home, we describe differences in time spent on housework, childcare, and leisure; the nature of time worked at home; and the subjective experiences of telecommuting. In addition to a broad descriptive portrait, we take advantage of a quasi-experimental design in the ATUS leave supplements to examine time working at home among those who report ever telecommuting, providing estimates of telecommuting’s effect on other uses of time that better approximate causal relationships than prior studies. We find that gender gaps in housework are larger for telecommuters, and, among telecommuters, larger on telecommuting days. Conversely, telecommuting may shrink the gender gap in childcare, particularly among couples with two full time earners, although childcare more frequently impinges upon mothers’ work time. Survey data collected following the March COVID19 stay-at-home orders show that telecommuting mothers more frequently report feelings of anxiety, loneliness and depression than telecommuting fathers. Early estimates of responses to the COVID19 pandemic offer insights into future implications of telecommuting for gender equality at work.
Objective This study examines the relationship between telecommuting and gender inequalities in parents' time use at home and on the job before and during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Background Telecommuting is a potential strategy for addressing the competing demands of work and home and the gendered ways in which they play out. Limited evidence is mixed, however, on the implications of telecommuting for mothers' and fathers' time in paid and unpaid work. The massive increase in telecommuting due to COVID‐19 underscores the critical need to address this gap in the literature. Method Data from the 2003–2018 American Time Use Survey (N = 12,519) and the 2020 Current Population Survey (N = 83,676) were used to estimate the relationship between telecommuting and gender gaps in parents' time in paid and unpaid work before and during the pandemic. Matching and quasi‐experimental methods better approximate causal relationships than prior studies. Results Before the pandemic, telecommuting was associated with larger gender gaps in housework and work disruptions but smaller gender gaps in childcare, particularly among couples with two full‐time earners. During the pandemic, telecommuting mothers maintained paid work to a greater extent than mothers working on‐site, whereas fathers' work hours did not differ by work location. Conclusion In the context of weak institutional support for parenting, telecommuting may offer mothers a mechanism for maintaining work hours and reducing gender gaps in childcare, while exacerbating inequalities in housework and disruptions to paid work.
Pandemic frontline occupations consist of disproportionately low socioeconomic status and racial minority workers. Documenting occupational health disparities is therefore crucial for understanding COVID-19-related health inequalities in the United States. This study uses Current Population Survey microdata to estimate occupational differences in sickness-related absences (SAs) from work in March through June 2020 and their contribution to educational, racial-ethnic, and nativity health disparities. We find that there has been an unprecedented rise in SAs concentrated in transportation, food-related, and personal care and service occupations. SA rates were 6 times higher in these occupations than in non-health-care professions. The greatest increases were in occupations that are unsuitable for remote work, require workers to work close to others, pay low wages, and rarely provide health insurance. Workers in these occupations are disproportionately Black, Hispanic, indigenous, and immigrants. Occupation contributes 41% of the total of Black/white differences and 54% of educational differences in SAs.
During the pandemic, work is exposing many workers to extensive health risks, with workplace infections a major source of COVID-19 outbreaks. The experience of work is substantially different by occupation, and “essential” occupations consist of disproportionately low-SES and non-White workers. Documenting occupational health disparities during the pandemic is therefore crucial for understanding COVID-19 health inequalities in the United States. This study uses the Current Population Survey microdata combined with occupational data from multiple sources to estimate occupational differences in sickness-related absences from work in March – June 2020 and their contribution to income, educational, and racial/ethnic differences in health inequalities. We find that there has been an unprecedented rise in absences compared to previous years, highly concentrated in transportation, food-related, and personal-care and service occupations. In areas with a major COVID-19 outbreak, these occupations saw rates of absence 6 times higher than all non-healthcare professional occupations. Occupations with the greatest increase in absences are those that are unsuitable for remote work, require workers to work in close proximity to others, pay low wages and rarely provide health insurance. These occupations are, on average, disproportionately non-White, immigrant, low-SES, and have workers in worse than average health. We show that occupation contributes 41% of the total of Black/White differences in absences, 40% of high-low income differences, and 54% of differences between college graduates and those with at most a high school diploma.
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