Title

The implicit wage costs of family friendly work practices

Document Type

Journal article

Source Publication

Oxford Economic Papers

Publication Date

4-1-2007

Volume

59

Issue

2

First Page

275

Last Page

300

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Abstract

This paper posits that the provision of family friendly practices is, on balance, costly to firms and valuable to workers. As a consequence, we anticipate the emergence of a hedonic equilibrium in which workers provided with such practices face an implicit reduction in their earnings. Using WERS98 linked employer-employee data, we find that workers overstate their access to family friendly practices. We also find a surprisingly high compensating wage differential of around 20%. However, this result depends critically on a treatment model designed to purge typical estimates of the income effect. It is also largely associated with indicators of flexible working schedules and cannot be replicated for workplace nursery support or working at home.

DOI

10.1093/oep/gpm006

Print ISSN

00307653

E-ISSN

14643812

Publisher Statement

Copyright © Oxford Economic Papers

Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.

Full-text Version

Publisher’s Version

Language

English

Recommended Citation

Heywood, J. S., Siebert, W. S., & Wei, X. (2007). The implicit wage costs of family friendly work practices. Oxford Economic Papers, 59(2), 275-300. doi: 10.1093/oep/gpm006

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