Session: Work, Parenthood and Prosperity: Exploring Policy, Work-Family Balance, and Well-Being in the Context of Economic Precarity (Society for Social Work and Research 29th Annual Conference)

The well-being of American families is deeply tied to work. In 2022, 91.2 percent of families with children were headed by at least one employed parent. However, the turn of the century marked a "Great Risk Shift" of economic risk from institutions onto individuals, resulting in increased economic precarity among families. One such change was the proliferation of practices that limited workers' control over their work-time. Workers are increasingly likely to work precarious work schedules: schedules that are unpredictable, unstable, and/or unwanted. They are also increasingly likely to be under-employed or otherwise unable to secure the hours they need. Working parents who cannot control their work-hours face the additional challenge of maintaining family routines, securing child-care, and ensuring their earned income covers regular and emergent family expenses.

This panel explores the relationship between work and family time in the context of precarious employment. The first paper examines how work-family time use is associated with multidimensional job precarity regarding work schedule, employment, income, and social benefits. The findings highlight the nuanced work-family experiences across worker groups, emphasizing the need for diverse, targeted interventions to address work-family challenges due to increasing precarity. The second paper explores how unstable work scheduling and under-employment impact economic hardship among working parents. It finds that work-hour changes and under-employment are associated with multiple dimensions of economic hardship. These associations are larger in magnitude among parents with children under 12.

The third and fourth papers connect the work-family interface to the policy realm, with insights into how two policies--Fair Workweek ordinances and the Earned Income Tax Credit--impact work-family balance and caregiving time. The third paper asks how the expansion of the EITC, an existing income support program for working families, impacted how mother-father dyads allocate caregiving responsibilities. She finds that EITC expansions increase mothers' work hours and fathers' substitution of some work time in favor of caregiving time. This suggests that family support programs like the EITC can affect how parents juggle work and family responsibilities. The fourth paper examines the impacts of a new policy ordinance which aims to improve different forms of work schedule precarity on levels of work-family conflict and material hardship. They find suggestive evidence that the ordinance reduced material hardship and work-family conflict among food service workers, though not for workers in other covered industries. Their findings illuminate the importance of examining how employers are implementing policy to understand whether and how emerging policy efforts can succeed at their goals.

Overall, this panel offers insights into the intricate dynamics between employment conditions and family life. It asks how families navigate competing demands on their time in the context of growing job precarity. It also explores how two policy avenues, income/work support policies and ordinances targeting workplace conditions, might enhance workers' abilities to balance work time with family demands. The insights derived from this panel provide valuable guidance for policymakers and practitioners aiming to enhance the work-life balance for American families in the face of ongoing economic shifts.