Prevailing Preferences

Studies of paid work hours have overlooked preferences partners have with respect to each other’s hours. The author uses the National Survey of Families and Households to examine how closely partners agree on the number of hours each should work. He also examines the extent to which actual hours reflect both partners’ preferences and factors that moderate the efficacy of each partner’s wishes. The analysis offers important new insights into work hours, work-hour constraints, and the negotiation of work hours between partners. The results indicate that partners often disagree about the number of hours each should work, and that although men’s hours reflect their own and their partner’s preferences equally, women’s hours are more closely tied to their own preferences. Still, changes in men’s and women’s actual hours are heavily influenced by factors that do not reflect their own or their partner’s preferences.