Hours of Paid Work Among Single and Partnered Mothers in Australia

Abstract

Research has established that families in developed countries commonly combine multiple sources of child care. Yet, families’ packages of child care and their effect on maternal labor force participation are underresearched, and the few existing empirical studies are primarily descriptive or use cross-sectional data. We add to the existing literature by theorizing and testing the relationships between family type, child care arrangements, and mothers’ work hours using Australian panel data and panel regression models. We find that employed mothers of young children who use a mixed child care package complete more hours of paid work than do employed mothers of young children who use other child care packages, but the reasons for this association are different among single and partnered mothers. For single mothers the most important characteristic of mixed child care packages appears to be their flexibility, whereas for partnered mothers mixed child care increases employment hours by maximizing the hours of child care available to them.

Gluing, catching and connecting: how informal childcare strengthens single mothers’ employment trajectories

“…Analysis of survey data finds employed single mothers who use mixed care use more hours of non-parental care compared to single mothers who use other childcare packages (Brady and Perales, 2016). However, these surveys do not provide insights into why mothers who use mixed packages use more hours of care.…”

The Role of Informal Childcare in Mothers’ Experiences of Care and Employment: A Qualitative Lifecourse Analysis

“…The first is the need for much more sustained attention to the problem of childcare flexibility. Existing statistical studies (Baxter et al 2007;Brady and Perales 2016), and the analysis in this chapter, find that single parents who use mixed childcare have greater labour market success; because a mixed childcare package is more flexible than formalonly or informal-only childcare. In other words, the current childcare system makes it hard for single mothers who cannot access mixed childcare to succeed in the labour market.…”

“…A little over half (55%) of all children aged 0-4 attend childcare, and of these 40% only use formal childcare, a quarter (26%) only use informal childcare, and a third (32%) attend both formal and informal care (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2012). Patterns of childcare use amongst employed single mothers with young children largely reflect these broader patterns with a third (33%) using formal only, a little over a quarter (28%) using informal only, and a little over a third (37%) using both formal and informal care (mixed childcare) (Brady and Perales 2016).…”

“…mixed childcare packages). As I have argued elsewhere (Brady and Perales 2016), this is problematic insofar as single mothers who use mixed childcare on average work significantly longer hours compared to mothers who use other childcare packages (after controlling for demographic factors and hours of childcare used). Although McKie et al (2002) have made a compelling case for examining the temporal dimension of balancing work and care, to date the dynamics of single mothers' experiences of balancing work and care have been underexplored.…”

“…To date the literature on single parents and employment has largely ignored the widespread use of mixed childcare amongst families. While this omission is important for all family types, it is a particular problem for the literature on single mothers because my prior research has found that single mothers who use mixed childcare on average working significantly longer hours compared to mothers who use other childcare packages, after controlling for a range of demographic factors and hours of childcare used (Brady and Perales 2016). 1 Further, descriptive statistics show that Australian single mothers who use mixed childcare packages have higher employment rates compared to mothers who use other childcare packages (Baxter et al 2007).…”