Time Allocation for Work-Life Balance of Married Couples and Policy Implication

Abstract

시간은 누구에게나 평등하게 하루 24시간으로 한정되어 있기 때문에 일과 생활의 균형을 위해서는 적정 노동시간을 유지하고 나머지 시간을 육아·가사, 여가 등의 활동에 적절히 배분하는 것이 무엇보다 중요하다고 할 수 있다.

또한 부부의 경우 둘 중 한 명의 시간 사용이 다른 한 명의 시간사용에 영향을 미칠 수밖에 없는 관계이기 때문에, 일·생활 균형을 위한 시간 배분이 더욱 중요하다. 이러한 점에서 최근 대두되고 있는 ‘독박 육아’라는 말도 성 평등 관점보다 워라밸 관점에서 해결해 나가야 하는 문제라고 생각된다. 이러한 배경에서 본 연구는 노동시간과 그 외 나머지 시간(육아·가사·여가·기타)의 배분에 대하여 분석하였다.

Among the OECD countries, Korea is one of the hardest working countries has very long working time and a high percentage of long-time workers. Working long time has a lot of impact on life. Recently, the government intends to promote a balance between work and life to improve the quality of life. It focuses on improving quality of life by reducing working time. In this context, this study analyzed the increase and decrease of working time, the relationship between working time and other times, and the effect of wage on time allocation. The purpose of this study is to identify the impact of reducing working time on childcare, housework, and leisure time, and whether it helps work-life balnce. As a result of the analysis, the working hour is 2.2 times longer for males than for females. However, housework hour is 7.2 times longer and parenting hour is 3.5 times longer for females than males. In the analysis of time use of husbands and wives, the major feature is that the factors of children are more influential than any other factors. For individuals, the relationship between work time and other time is a trade-off. So, as work time increases, housework time and child care time decrease for both husbands and wives. For couples, the relationship between individual time and spouse's time is complementary. So, as one’s work time increases, the other’s work time decreases. As the wife's wage increased, her husband's work time and her own child-care time decreased. While husbands feel lack of time when they have a long working hours and preschool children, wives feel lack of time when they have a long parenting hours and feel lack of time less when they have long leisure hours.