IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp12322.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Effects of Work-Life Benefits on Employment Outcomes in Canada: A Multivariate Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Fang, Tony

    (Memorial University of Newfoundland)

  • Lee, Byron

    (China Europe International Business School)

  • Timming, Andrew R.

    (University of Western Australia)

  • Fan, Di

    (University of Western Australia)

Abstract

Using the longitudinal Workplace and Employee Survey of Canada, we examine the association between the provision of work-life benefits and various employment outcomes in the Canadian labour market. Whilst the theory of compensating wage differentials hypothesizes an inevitable trade-off between higher wages and non-wage benefits, the efficiency wage theory suggests otherwise. The empirical evidence broadly supports the efficiency wage theory, thus rejecting the compensating wage differentials theory. If bundled appropriately, it appears that work-life benefits are positively associated with increased wages, in addition to a greater number of promotions, enhanced employee morale in the form of job satisfaction, and improved employee retention. The study concludes that organizations and employees can both profit when work-life benefits are offered.

Suggested Citation

  • Fang, Tony & Lee, Byron & Timming, Andrew R. & Fan, Di, 2019. "The Effects of Work-Life Benefits on Employment Outcomes in Canada: A Multivariate Analysis," IZA Discussion Papers 12322, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12322
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp12322.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. George A. Akerlof & Janet L. Yellen, 1990. "The Fair Wage-Effort Hypothesis and Unemployment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 105(2), pages 255-283.
    2. Mark Wooden & Diana Warren & Robert Drago, 2009. "Working Time Mismatch and Subjective Well‐being," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 47(1), pages 147-179, March.
    3. Deborah J. Anderson & Melissa Binder & Kate Krause, 2002. "The Motherhood Wage Penalty: Which Mothers Pay It and Why?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(2), pages 354-358, May.
    4. John W. Budd & Karen Mumford, 2004. "Trade Unions and Family-Friendly Policies in Britain," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 57(2), pages 204-222, January.
    5. Felfe, Christina, 2012. "The motherhood wage gap: What about job amenities?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 59-67.
    6. Christina Felfe, 2012. "The Willingness to Pay for Job Amenities: Evidence from Mothers' Return to Work," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 65(2), pages 427-454, April.
    7. Kostiuk, Peter F, 1990. "Compensating Differentials for Shift Work," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 1054-1075, October.
    8. Gray, Helen, 2002. "Family-friendly working: what a performance! An analysis of the relationship between the availability of family-friendly policies and establishment performance," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 20082, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Beauregard, T. Alexandra & Henry, Lesley C., 2009. "Making the link between work-life balance practices and organizational performance," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 25224, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Akerlof, George A, 1984. "Gift Exchange and Efficiency-Wage Theory: Four Views," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(2), pages 79-83, May.
    11. John S. Heywood & W. Stanley Siebert & Xiangdong Wei, 2007. "The implicit wage costs of family friendly work practices," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 59(2), pages 275-300, April.
    12. Krueger, Alan B & Summers, Lawrence H, 1988. "Efficiency Wages and the Inter-industry Wage Structure," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(2), pages 259-293, March.
    13. Shirley Dex & Fiona Scheibl, 2001. "Flexible and Family‐Friendly Working Arrangements in UK‐Based SMEs: Business Cases," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 39(3), pages 411-431, September.
    14. John MacInnes, 2005. "Work–Life Balance and the Demand for Reduction in Working Hours: Evidence from the British Social Attitudes Survey 2002," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 43(2), pages 273-295, June.
    15. Helena Skyt Nielsen & Marianne Simonsen & Mette Verner, 2004. "Does the Gap in Family‐friendly Policies Drive the Family Gap?," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 106(4), pages 721-744, December.
    16. Rosen, Sherwin, 1974. "Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets: Product Differentiation in Pure Competition," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(1), pages 34-55, Jan.-Feb..
    17. Hwang, Hae-shin & Mortensen, Dale T & Reed, W Robert, 1998. "Hedonic Wages and Labor Market Search," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(4), pages 815-847, October.
    18. Charles Brown, 1980. "Equalizing Differences in the Labor Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 94(1), pages 113-134.
    19. Shapiro, Carl & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1984. "Equilibrium Unemployment as a Worker Discipline Device," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(3), pages 433-444, June.
    20. Eaton, Susan C., 2001. "If You Can Use Them: Flexibility Policies, Organizational Commitment, and Perceived Productivity," Working Paper Series rwp01-009, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    21. StÈphane Bonhomme & GrÈgory Jolivet, 2009. "The pervasive absence of compensating differentials," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(5), pages 763-795.
    22. Ariel C. Avgar & Rebecca Kolins Givan & Mingwei Liu, 2011. "A Balancing Act: Work–Life Balance and Multiple Stakeholder Outcomes in Hospitals," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 49(4), pages 717-741, December.
    23. Johnson, Nancy Brown & Provan, Keith G., 1995. "The relationship between work/family benefits and earnings: A test of competing predictions," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 571-584.
    24. Eric Krassoi Peach & T. Stanley, 2009. "Efficiency Wages, Productivity and Simultaneity: A Meta-Regression Analysis," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 262-268, September.
    25. John M. Evans, 2001. "Firms' Contribution to the Reconciliation between Work and Family Life," OECD Labour Market and Social Policy Occasional Papers 48, OECD Publishing.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Julien Picault, 2023. "A strategic approach to managerial compliance with equal pay policies," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(8), pages 1-21, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kevin Lang, 2020. "Effort and wages: Evidence from the payroll tax," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(1), pages 108-139, February.
    2. Ariane Pailhé & Anne Solaz, 2019. "Is there a wage cost for employees in family‐friendly workplaces? The effect of different employer policies," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(5), pages 688-721, June.
    3. Geraci, Andrea & L. Bryan, Mark, 2016. "Non-standard work: what’s it worth? Comparing alternative measures of workers’ marginal willingness to pay," ISER Working Paper Series 2016-12, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    4. Ali Fakih, 2014. "Availability of Family-Friendly Work Practices and Implicit Wage Costs: New Evidence from Canada," CIRANO Working Papers 2014s-33, CIRANO.
    5. Ali Fakih, 2014. "Vacation Leave, Work Hours, and Wages: New Evidence from Linked Employer–Employee Data," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 28(4), pages 376-398, December.
    6. Cédric Afsa & Pauline Givord, 2009. "Le rôle des conditions de travail dans les absences pour maladie : le cas des horaires irréguliers," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 187(1), pages 83-103.
    7. Desiere, Sam & Walter, Christian, 2023. "The Shift Premium: Evidence from a Discrete Choice Experiment," IZA Discussion Papers 16460, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. StÈphane Bonhomme & GrÈgory Jolivet, 2009. "The pervasive absence of compensating differentials," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(5), pages 763-795.
    9. Gafni Dalit & Siniver Erez, 2015. "Is There a Motherhood Wage Penalty for Highly Skilled Women?," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 15(3), pages 1353-1380, July.
    10. Alexandre Mas & Amanda Pallais, 2017. "Valuing Alternative Work Arrangements," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(12), pages 3722-3759, December.
    11. Haoran He & David Neumark & Qian Weng, 2021. "Do Workers Value Flexible Jobs? A Field Experiment," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 39(3), pages 709-738.
    12. Stockton, Isabel & Bergemann, Annette & Brunow, Stephan, 2016. "There And Back Again: Women's Marginal Commuting Costs," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145919, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    13. Haoran He & David Neumark & Qian Weng, 2019. "Do Workers Value Flexible Jobs? A Field Experiment on Compensating Differentials," Natural Field Experiments 00667, The Field Experiments Website.
    14. Jinpeng Ma, 2004. "Jobless Recovering and Equilibrium Involuntary Unemployment with a Simple Efficiency Wage Model," Departmental Working Papers 200404, Rutgers University, Department of Economics.
    15. M. Joseph Sirgy & Dong-Jin Lee, 2018. "Work-Life Balance: an Integrative Review," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 13(1), pages 229-254, March.
    16. Scott Stern, 2004. "Do Scientists Pay to Be Scientists?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(6), pages 835-853, June.
    17. Mari, Gabriele, 2020. "Working-time flexibility is (not the same) for all: Evidence from a right-to-request reform," SocArXiv bnp9r, Center for Open Science.
    18. Fernández, Rosa M. & Nordman, Christophe J., 2009. "Are there pecuniary compensations for working conditions?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 194-207, April.
    19. Kevin Lang, 2003. "The Effect of the Payroll Tax on Earnings: A Test of Competing Models of Wage Determination," NBER Working Papers 9537, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. David Fairris, 2004. "Towards a Theory of Work Intensity," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 30(4), pages 587-601, Fall.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    job satisfaction; efficiency wage theory; compensating wage differentials; promotion; wages; work-life benefits;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J32 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits; Retirement Plans; Private Pensions
    • J33 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Compensation Packages; Payment Methods
    • J38 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Public Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12322. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.