Work Hours Instability in Canada
by Andrew Heisz and Sébastien LaRochelle Côté
Business and Labour Market Analysis Division
Analytical Studies Branch research paper series, No. 278
Context
Numerous studies of working hours have drawn important conclusions
from cross-sectional surveys. For example, the share of individuals
working long hours is quite large at any given point in time. Moreover,
this appears to have increased over the past two decades, raising the
call for policies designed to alleviate working hours discrepancies
among workers, or reduce working time overall. However, if work hours
vary substantially at the individual level over time, then conclusions
based upon studies of cross-sectional data may be incomplete.
Objectives
This paper attempts to fill a gap in the Canadian job quality literature
by investigating individual-level variability in work hours.
Findings
Using longitudinal data from the Canadian Survey of Labour and Income
Dynamics, the study finds that there is substantial variation in annual
working hours at the individual level. In fact, as much as half of the
cross-sectional inequality in annual work hours can be explained by
individual-level instability in hours. Moreover, very few individuals
work chronically long hours. Instability in work hours is shown to be
related to low-job quality, non-standard work, low-income levels, stress
and bad health. This indicates that working variable work hours is not
likely done by choice; rather, it is more likely that these workers
are unable to secure more stable employment. The lack of persistence
in long work hours, plus the high level of individual work hours instability
undermines the equity based arguments behind working time reduction
policies. Furthermore, this research points out that policies designed
to reduce hours instability could benefit workers.
Data source: The data used in this study come from
the Survey on Labour and Income Dynamics.
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