The impact of long working hours on employed fathers and their families
Lixia Qu, Ruth Weston, Matthew Gray and David Stanton
Australian Institute of Family Studies
Contact Email:   Ruth.Westonaifs.gov.au

In Australia and other western countries, two countervailing trends relating to workforce participation have affected family life. On the one hand, there has been a surge in the workforce participation of women and associated calls for fathers to play a more active role in the non-financial aspects of home making. On the other hand, the proportion of men working more than standard full-time hours has increased over the last 20 years, although there is some evidence to suggest that the proportions working more than 48 hours per week fell during the late 1990s.
Reasons for trends in working hours are highly controversial, as are the impact of these trends on workers and their families. This paper uses data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey to examine links between aspects of work hours (for example, usual and preferred work hours and satisfaction with work hours), other employment circumstances, family characteristics, perceptions of work-family balance, and wellbeing across various other domains of personal and family life.

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