Doan Tinh, LaBond Christine, Banwell Cathy, Timmins Perri, Butterworth Peter, Strazdins Lyndall
Research School of Population Health, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
Safe Work Australia, Canberra, Australia.
SSM Popul Health. 2022 May 13;18:101121. doi: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2022.101121. eCollection 2022 Jun.
Could working into older age offer women an opportunity to 'catch up' their careers and redress their financial disadvantage in retirement? This is a period of relative 'unencumbrance' from childrearing, potentially freeing women's time for more paid work. Here, we examine whether women aged 50 to 70 are able to increase their workhours, and what happens to their mental health, vitality and wealth. We used a representative household-based panel of employed older Australians (the HILDA survey). The longitudinal bootstrapped 3SLS estimation technique adjusted for reciprocal relationships between wages, workhours, and health, modelled in the context of domestic work time. We found that, relative to their same-aged male counterparts, older women spent 10 h more each week on domestic work, and 9 h less on work that earned income. When women sought to add more paid hours on top of their unpaid hours, their mental health and vitality were impaired. Men were typically able to maintain their workhours and health advantage by spending fewer hours each week on domestic work. Unable to work longer without trading-off their health, and paid less per hour if they did so, our analysis questions whether working into older age offers women a road out of inequality and disadvantage.
延长工作年限能否为女性提供一个“追赶”职业发展并弥补其退休后经济劣势的机会？这是一个相对摆脱育儿负担的时期，有可能为女性腾出时间从事更多有薪工作。在此，我们研究50至70岁的女性是否能够增加工作时长，以及她们的心理健康、活力和财富状况会发生什么变化。我们使用了一个具有代表性的澳大利亚老年在职人员家庭面板数据（即HILDA调查）。纵向自抽样三阶段最小二乘法估计技术针对工资、工作时长和健康之间的相互关系进行了调整，并在家庭工作时间的背景下进行了建模。我们发现，与同龄男性相比，老年女性每周花在家务上的时间多10小时，而花在有收入工作上的时间少9小时。当女性试图在无薪工作时长的基础上增加更多有薪工作时长时，她们的心理健康和活力会受到损害。男性通常能够通过减少每周花在家务上的时间来维持其工作时长和健康优势。由于无法在不牺牲健康的情况下延长工作时间，而且如果这样做每小时的报酬更低，我们的分析对延长工作年限是否能为女性提供一条摆脱不平等和劣势的出路提出了质疑。
