Volume 44 - Article 26 | Pages 609–626  

Educational gradients in nonstandard work schedules among mothers and fathers in the United Kingdom

By Afshin Zilanawala

Abstract

Background: Mothers’ and fathers’ participation in nonstandard employment across children’s lives is not well understood in the United Kingdom.

Objective: The first objective is to describe the prevalence of nonstandard work schedules (e.g., evenings, weekends, nights) among employed mothers and fathers using longitudinal data. The second objective is to document the education gradient in parental nonstandard work schedules over the first decade of a child’s life.

Methods: Linear probability models predict participation in nonstandard work schedules, adjusting for demographic variables, at each survey wave by education for each parent, using the first five waves of the Millennium Cohort Study.

Results: Employed mothers with less than NVQ2 (or less than high school) were most likely to work nonstandard schedules across childhood. Among employed fathers, there was little difference in the probability of working nonstandard schedules by education. The most common type of shift for mothers (30%‒36%) and fathers (nearly 42%‒46%) was evening work. Mothers and fathers with NVQ4 or more (college degree or higher) were most likely to work regularly in the evening at all ages. Night working, the least common type of schedule, did not differ by education for both parents. Mothers and fathers with the least education were most likely to work weekend schedules at all ages.

Contribution: This article documents the pervasiveness of parental nonstandard employment, which has received little attention in the UK; finds that the education gradient in nonstandard work schedules is contingent on type of schedule; and critically incorporates information about fathers’ nonstandard schedules.

Author's Affiliation

• Afshin Zilanawala - University of Nottingham, United Kingdom EMAIL

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

Race/ethnic inequalities in early adolescent development in the United Kingdom and United States
Volume 40 - Article 6

Parental nonstandard work schedules during infancy and children’s BMI trajectories
Volume 37 - Article 22

Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research

The importance of education for understanding variability of dementia onset in the United States
Volume 50 - Article 26    | Keywords: dementia, education, lifespan variability, modal age, morbidity compression

Measuring the educational gradient of period fertility in 28 European countries: A new approach based on parity-specific fertility estimates
Volume 49 - Article 34    | Keywords: education, Europe, period fertility, quantum, tempo, total fertility rate (TFR)

A Bayesian model for the reconstruction of education- and age-specific fertility rates: An application to African and Latin American countries
Volume 49 - Article 31    | Keywords: age, Bayesian analysis, education, fertility estimation, fertility rates

Educational reproduction in Sweden: A replication of Skopek and Leopold 2020 using Swedish data
Volume 48 - Article 25    | Keywords: differential fertility, education, prospective models, reproduction, social mobility, Sweden

A register-based account of period trends in union prevalence, entries, and exits by educational level for men and women in Finland
Volume 48 - Article 14    | Keywords: cohabitation, divorce, education, Finland, marriage, register data, trends, union dissolution