Patterns of Time Use Among Older People

The Association between Time Poverty and Income Poverty: The Case of Sri Lanka

“…While people in the 50-64 age category are those with more work experience as it is the latter part of their careers, they generally tend to be income non-poor due to the high returns they receive for their high level of work experience. Moreover, they tend to be time non-poor since the amount of household responsibilities they have are at a minimum mainly due to the fact that their children are most likely to have reached adulthood which allows them to share the burden of household responsibilities with their On the other hand, the finding that most of the people who are worse off (simultaneously time and income poor) are also from the 50-64 age category can be rationalised through Ferranna et al (2022) 14 which showed how people cut back on paid work as they grow older and reach old age, and how their wages tend to decrease which could cause them to be income poor. However, despite the reduction in paid work, Ferranna et al (2022) also asserted that "as people grow old, part of the time devoted to paid work is reallocated to unpaid work" which include household duties that could cause such people to also be time poor in addition to being income poor.…”

“…Moreover, they tend to be time non-poor since the amount of household responsibilities they have are at a minimum mainly due to the fact that their children are most likely to have reached adulthood which allows them to share the burden of household responsibilities with their On the other hand, the finding that most of the people who are worse off (simultaneously time and income poor) are also from the 50-64 age category can be rationalised through Ferranna et al (2022) 14 which showed how people cut back on paid work as they grow older and reach old age, and how their wages tend to decrease which could cause them to be income poor. However, despite the reduction in paid work, Ferranna et al (2022) also asserted that "as people grow old, part of the time devoted to paid work is reallocated to unpaid work" which include household duties that could cause such people to also be time poor in addition to being income poor. Considering that the gender gap in household responsibilities persist in Sri Lanka even during old age, it is arguable that most 50-64 aged people in the worst scenario (being simultaneously time and income poor) are females.…”

“…Moreover, since people in this age category tend to maintain a stock of savings for future use along with the high expenses they have, they allocate a significant proportion of their time on paid work thus being income non-poor. With competing requirements on their time, with paid work and unpaid work, people in this age category are considered to be the most hard-working group of people who spend the least time on leisure and self-care (Ferranna et al, 2022), thus being time poor but income non-poor.…”