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April 2002, Vol. 125, No. 4

Synchronicity in the work schedules of working couples

John P. Robinson and Alain Chenu

To provide insights into the divergent life schedules of married couples in modern societies, researchers in Europe developed a graphic work grid as a useful alternative to traditional work estimate questions.¹ One of the great values of having work grid schedules from both spouses in dual-earner households is that researchers can determine how married couples who have similar or different patterns of work hours engage in other activities.

 This article illustrates one of many uses of work grid data. In addition, to determine the extent of any disparities between couples, this article presents a dissimilarity index, which quantifies gaps in work schedules. It analyzes dissimilarities across demographic characteristics and compares work patterns of "real couples," versus "random couples."

This excerpt is from an article published in the April 2002 issue of the Monthly Labor Review. The full text of the article is available in Adobe Acrobat's Portable Document Format (PDF). See How to view a PDF file for more information.

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Footnotes

1  See John P. Robinson, Alain Chenu,and Anthony S. Alvarez, "Measuring the complexity of hours at work: the weekly work grid," Monthly Labor Review, April 2002, pp. 44–54.

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