Measuring time spent in unpaid household work: Results from the American Time Use Survey

Monthly Labor Review

Volumn 132, Issue 7, 2009, Pages 46-59

  Krantz Kent, Rachel ^a  

^a BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 70349560682     PISSN: 00981818     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (20)

1. Determining a value for unpaid household work is a complex undertaking, one that requires a method for valuing that time as well as information about the time involved in these activities. For more information about this subject, see: Katharine G. Abraham and Christopher Mackie, eds., Beyond the Market: Designing Nonmarket Accounts for the United States (Washington, D.C., The National Academies Press, 2005).
2. Information is collected about times when survey respondents had a child "in their care" while doing their primary activities, but this information is not used in this analysis
3. This analysis uses the 2003-07 pooled data set and corresponding activity coding lexicon, both are available at: www.bls.gov/tus/datafiles_my.htm.
4. More information about the American Time Use Survey is on the Bureau of Labor Statistics Web site at: www.bls.gov/tus/
5. For survey respondents who are employed, the interviewer asks "Were there any activities that were done as a part of your job?" Respondents with more than one job also are asked, "Were there any activities that were done as a part of your other job?" All survey respondents are asked a variant of the following question, "Were there any other activities that you were paid for or will be paid for?" For this final question, the interviewer instructs employed respondents not to include paid breaks at work or paid time off
6. Margaret G. Reid, Economics of Household Production (New York, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1934).
7. See page 171 of Katharine G. Abraham and Christopher Mackie, Framework for Nonmarket Accounting, a chapter in Dale W. Jorgenson, J. Ste- ven Landefeld, and William D. Nordhaus, eds., A New Architecture for the U.S. National Accounts (University of Chicago Press, May 2006); on the Internet at www.nber.org/books/jorg06-1 (visited Jan. 12, 2009).
8. An "average day" is an average across all 7 days of the week
9. The term "children," as used in the ATUS and in this article, refers to in- dividuals under age 18. "Household children" refers to all children living in the household, whether or not they were related to the individual who was inter- viewed about his use of time.
10. These estimates do not correspond to published ratios from the Current Population Survey (CPS) for several reasons. First, the reference population for the ATUS is age 15 years and older, whereas it is 16 years and older for the CPS. Second, ATUS data are collected continuously, the employment reference period being the 7 days prior to the interview. By contrast, CPS data refer to employ- ment during the week containing the 12th of the month. Finally, the CPS accepts answers from household members about other household members whereas such proxy responses are not allowed in the ATUS.
11. Persons employed part time usually work less than 35 hours per week; persons employed full time usually work 35 or more hours per week
12. The difference between these estimates is not statistically significant at a 90 percent confidence level
13. These statements refer specifically to parents who were living in the same household as their biological, step-, or adopted children under age 18
14. The labor force consists of all persons who are employed and unemployed.There was little difference in the percent of men aged 55 to 64 and 65 to 74 who were unemployed.
15. Note also that chart 4 shows averages for a 3-year age range, centered on the age shown. This was done to smooth the lines.
16. Gary S. Becker. "A Theory of the Allocation of Time." The Economic Journal, 1965, vol. 75, No. 299, pp. 493-517.
17. Note also that chart 5 shows averages for a 3-year age range, centered on the age shown. This was done to smooth the lines.
18. Results from the 2006 and 2007 ATUS Eating and Health modules show that persons aged 75 and older were more likely to describe their general health as "fair" or "poor" and less likely to describe it as "excellent" or "very good" than were persons aged 65 to 74 or younger
19. These data refer specifically to parents who were living in the same house- hold as their biological, step-, or adopted children under age 18
20. The labor force is comprised of all persons who are employed, looking for work, or on temporary layoff from a job