Can policy foster working-time flexibility for all? Evidence from a right-to-request reform in the UK

The latest surge in flexible working-time arrangements may draw new attention to their regulation. Yet there is little research on whether public policy can stimulate widespread access to working-time flexibility. Besides, the latter often comes bundled with wage penalties and lower earnings. Such compensating differentials have been implicated in the persistence of gender gaps in labour markets, particularly when it comes to wage penalties for mothers. It is unclear though if such trade-offs may also affect women and men without children, if and when working-time flexibility becomes more accessible. I investigate whether a popular public policy, right-to-request legislation, can bolster working- time flexibility and if compensating differentials may ensue. I focus on a 2014 reform that provided most employees in the UK the right to request reductions in working hours or flexible working times, regardless of the presence of children in the household. Using multiple sources of data and a variety of difference-in-differences estimators, I find no evidence that such reforms affected hours of work, uptake of flexible working-time arrangements, wages and earnings, and job-related well-being among women and men without children. Estimates may suggest that universal right-to-request laws risk being ineffective, particularly if replicating the UK’s policy design and in contexts where working-time flexibility may be deemed undesirable for its career costs.