Remote work and the effects on secondary childcare

In spring 2020, stay at home orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic forced many Americans to work remotely. Simultaneously, these orders shut down schools and daycare centers, leading to anecdotal reports of large increases in multitasking. Specifically, remote workers were engaging in more secondary childcare, which, unlike primary childcare, is linked to negative effects on well-being. Using American Time Use Survey (ATUS) data for the years 2003–2021, we find that remote workers spend more time on secondary childcare than office workers and that remote work exacerbates documented father/mother differences in time spent on secondary childcare. In addition, we find evidence that self-selection into remote work creates sample selection bias, as coefficient magnitudes are reduced when selection into remote work is accounted for via an endogenous treatment model. Finally, we examine the effects of an exogenous shock, the COVID-19 pandemic, on hours spent on secondary childcare via a triple difference model. Again, our results indicate that remote work exacerbates documented father/mother differences in time spent on secondary childcare, likely decreasing mothers’ well-being.