Telecommuting and Earnings Trajectories Among American Women and Men 1989–2008

Abstract

While flexibility in the location of work hours has shown positive organizational effects on productivity and retention, less is known about the earnings effects of telecommuting. We analyze weekly hours spent working from home using the 1989–2008 panels of the National Longitudinal Study of Youth. We describe the demographic and occupational characteristics of the employees engaged in telecommuting, then track their earnings growth with fixed-effects models, focusing on gender and parental status. Results show substantial variation in the earnings effects of telecommuting based on the point in the hours distribution worked from home. Working from home rather than the office produces equal earnings growth in the first 40 hours worked, but “taking work home” or overtime telecommuting yields significantly smaller increases than overtime worked on-site. Yet most observed telecommuting occurs precisely during this low-yield overtime portion of the hours distribution. Few gender or parental status differences emerged in these processes. These trends reflect potentially widespread negative consequences of the growing capacity of workers to perform their work from any location. Rather than enhancing true flexibility in when and where employees work, the capacity to work from home mostly extends the work day and encroaches into what was formerly home and family time.

Gender, Flexibility Stigma and the Perceived Negative Consequences of Flexible Working in the UK

“…In the data used here, as well as all other previous surveys done before (e.g., Working Families 2017;Cech and Blair-Loy 2014;Vontz et al 2018), respondents are asked about flexible workers and the perceived performance and outcomes of/for these workers without clear distinctions between different types of arrangements used. Flexitime and teleworking have been shown to increase overtime hours worked (Glass and Noonan 2016;Lott and Chung 2016) and have been associated to increased productivity and performance outcomes (de Menezes and Kelliher 2011). Although previous studies have shown stigmatised views towards those using flexitime and teleworking (Munsch 2016), as this study shows, these arrangements may not necessarily result in career penalties at least not nearly as bad as compared to using arrangements that reduce working hours.…”

Flexible Working and Unpaid Overtime in the UK: The Role of Gender, Parental and Occupational Status

“…Previous studies that examine how flexible working relates to increases in work intensity/overtime hours do not necessarily tease these differences out. For example, Lott and Chung (2016) primarily focussed on workers' control over their schedules while Glass and Noonan (2016) looked at working from home, which included taking work home after normal working hours. As we will show later, distinguishing the different types of flexible working based on which goal it is primarily aimed at, is crucial when examining the outcomes of flexible working.…”

“…This phenomenon has been coined 'the autonomy (control) paradox' (Mazmanian et al 2013;Putnam et al 2014), the paradox being that workers when given more autonomy and freedom, rather than working less, work harder and longer. In fact, recent studies have shown that flexible working increases working hours, overtime (Glass and Noonan 2016;Lott and Chung 2016), and work intensity (Kelliher and Anderson 2010). Although these studies have been useful in providing some insights, there are some issues that need further investigation.…”

“…Fixed effects panel regression models are used to examine how these three types of flexible working are associated with an increase in unpaid overtime hours. Although previous studies have examined overtime as a whole (Lott and Chung 2016;Glass and Noonan 2016), paid overtime may be done for additional income and/or can be carried out more routinely as a part of the job. We believe that unpaid overtime is a better measurement of workers working longer to enhance performance, or adhere to the ideal worker norm, which can be more problematic in relation to work-life balance and gender equality.…”

One step forward? Advances and setbacks on the path toward gender equality in families and work

“…Notwithstanding these policy retreats, there has been some progress for hourly workers. Whereas professional and high-wage workers continue to have more access to workplace flexibility benefits than low-wage workers (Gerstel & Clawson, 2015;Glass & Noonan, 2016), companies are increasingly adopting schedule stability policies for hourly workers (Williams, 2014). For instance, Walmart adopted "fixed shifts" policies to give workers more stability in stores nationwide (DePillis, 2016).…”