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ࡗ Nonstandard Work Schedules and Marital InstabilityBased on subsample of 3,476 married couples drawn from two waves of the National Survey of Families and Household, this study examines the extent to which working evening, night, or rotating schedules and weekends affects the likelihood of marriages ending in separation or divorce within approximately 5 years. Logistic regression analysis revealed that this relationship depends on the presence of children and is specific to the type of nonstandard schedule, the gender of the spouse, and the duration of marriage. Among men with children, married less than 5 years at Wave 1, working fixed nights made separation or divorce some six times more likely relative to working days. Among women with children, married more than 5 years at Wave 1, working fixed nights increased the odds by three times, and might have had an effect during the earlier years of marriage as well (although not statistically significant). These findings are evident when controlling for the number of hours worked as well as for demographic variables, and when considering, in addition, the husband's and wife's gender ideologies and the extent to which couples spent time alone together. The question of whether spouses in troubled marriages are more likely to move into night or rotating shifts was explored, but this did not seem to be the case.Americans are moving toward a 24-hour, 7-daysa-week economy.

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This study provides the most recent national estimates of the prevalence of employment during nonstandard hours (evenings, nights, or rotating hours) and on weekends. It also examines in a multivariate context the relevance of job and family characteristics as determinants of such employment, separately for men and for women. The findings support the contention that the demand for employment during nonstandard hours and weekends is pervasive throughout the occupational hierarchy, but particularly in service occupations and in personal service industries and for both men and women. Gender differences exist, however, in the relevance of family factors. Being married reduces women's but not men's likelihood of employment during nonstandard hours, and the presence of children affects women's but not men's hours and days of employment. (The direction of the effect for women depends on the children's age.) Implications of these findings are discussed.

This article, based on the May 1997 Current Population Survey, presents a detailed analysis of the extent to which employed American men and women of various race-ethnic groups work non-standard work hours—namely, evenings, nights, and rotating or highly variable work shifts— and the reasons they report for doing so. Differences in occupational structure among race-ethnic groups largely explain their differences in the prevalence of nonstandard work shifts. Yet even when standardizing for occupation, both male and female non-Hispanic Blacks have higher levels working nonstandard shifts than their Hispanic or White counterparts. Moreover, the relatively low pay of such jobs and the large proportions of those working nonstandard hours who give job-constraining reasons for doing so support the contention that late and rotating work schedules are an important dimension of labor force disadvantage, especially among men. Furthermore, the literature indicates greater health risks and social costs for working such hours. Differences in weekend employment by race-ethnicity are small. Based on job growth projections, it is speculated that over the next decade, nonstandard work schedules will disproportionately involve more women, non-Hispanic Blacks and Hispanics.