Remote Work and Women's Labor Supply: The New Gender Division at Home

TL;DR

This paper examines how increased remote work for men during COVID-19 improved their wives' labor market outcomes, driven by intra-household reallocation of childcare and household responsibilities.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence on how remote work influences household labor division and women's employment, highlighting the intra-household dynamics during the pandemic.

Findings

Women's employment increased by 2.5 percentage points

Women's weekly hours rose by about half an hour

Part-time work among women decreased by 9%

Abstract

We study how increases in remote work opportunities for men affect their spouses' labor supply. Exploiting variation in the change in work-from-home (WFH) exposure across occupations before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, we find that increases in men's WFH exposure led to sizable improvements in their wives' labor-market outcomes: annual employment rose by roughly 2.5 percentage points (from a 69% pre-treatment mean), earnings increased by about 5%, weekly hours worked rose by roughly half an hour, weeks worked increased by about 1.3%, and the likelihood of part-time work declined by approximately 9%. Evidence from time-use diaries and childcare questionnaires suggests these effects are driven by intra-household reallocation of child-caring time: women are less likely to engage in primary childcare activities, while men working at home partially compensate by covering more for their spouse. These results highlight the role of households in shaping the labor market consequences of remote work.