Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/34882 
Year of Publication: 
2008
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 3582
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper examines the role of work-life balance practices (WLB) in explaining the paradox of the contented female worker. After establishing that females report higher levels of job satisfaction than men in the UK, we test whether firm characteristics such as WLB and gender segregation boost the satisfaction of women proportionately more than that of men, thereby explaining why the former are reportedly happier. The results prove that WLB practices increase the likelihood of reporting higher satisfaction but similarly for both demographic groups thereby reducing the gender gap in job satisfaction only slightly. Still, the results indicate that WLB practices at the forefront of worker welfare policy improve the wellbeing of the workforce. Experiments with firm-fixed effects allowed by the matched dimension of the data reveal that firm effects are relevant but they only explain a half of the gender gap in job satisfaction, suggesting that the other half may be due to individual heterogeneity.
Subjects: 
Job satisfaction
work-life balance practices
gender segregation
matched employer-employee data
JEL: 
C13
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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