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Gender Wage Gap and the Involvement of Partners in Household Work

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  • Eleonora Matteazzi

    (University of Verona, Italy; EconomiX-CNRS, France)

  • Stefani Scherer

    (University of Trento, Italy)

Abstract

Women still earn less than men and continue to perform the bulk of domestic activities. Several studies documented a negative individual wage–housework relation, suggesting that gender discrepancies in housework may explain the gender wage gap. Less attention has been paid to the role of the partner’s unpaid work and to the extent that intra-household inequalities relate to inequalities outside the house. The present study attempts to fill this gap in the literature. We exploit EU-SILC 2010 data for Germany and Italy and PSID 2009 data for the US. Results suggest the importance of accounting for a partner’s housework when evaluating the determinants of individual wages and the gender wage gap. Women seem not to profit from their partners’ housework; instead, women’s non-market work increases their partners’ earnings while decreasing their own earnings. This suggests the importance of reducing women’s involvement in domestic work in order to close gender wage equalities.

Suggested Citation

  • Eleonora Matteazzi & Stefani Scherer, 2021. "Gender Wage Gap and the Involvement of Partners in Household Work," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 35(3), pages 490-508, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:35:y:2021:i:3:p:490-508
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017020937936
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Niels Blom & Lynn Prince Cooke, 2024. "Wage Effects of Couples’ Divisions of Labour across the UK Wage Distribution," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 38(5), pages 1223-1243, October.
    3. Elisa Brini & Mariya Lenko & Stefani Scherer & Agnese Vitali, 2021. "Retraditionalisation? Work patterns of families with children during the pandemic in Italy," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 45(31), pages 957-972.
    4. Bhattacharya, Leena, 2023. "Time allocation of daughters-in-law and mothers-in-law in India: The role of education as bargaining power," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1343, Global Labor Organization (GLO).

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